A Second Chance
by The Lonely Geek
Summary: What if Lily forgave Snape when he called her a mudblood? What if Lily trusted Severus again? This is their journey before and going through Hogwarts if Lily had forgiven him. Rated T for child and domestic abuse. If you don't like Snily, don't read. I don't mind constructive criticism, but no flames please.
1. Chapter 1

_**Summary: What if Lily forgave Snape when he called her a mudblood? What if they married? This is their journey before, going through, and after Hogwarts if Lily had forgiven him.**_

 _ **It's probably not a good idea for me to start writing another fanfic with my GCSEs in few months, but oh well. I've written a few chapters ahead so updates should be once a week. I may have to take a break May/June time just to warn you. Also, in case it wasn't obvious this is a Severus X Lily story, if you don't like Severus please don't flame. I don't want to get into a debate about him, I just wanted to write a story involving him. Another warning, there will be child and domestic abuse in this story, I'm not sure yet how much detail I'll go into, there's bits in this chapter, but if this is a major trigger, I wouldn't suggest reading.**_

 _ **Enjoy and please let me know what you think.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **A second chance**

 **Part 1 – Pre Hogwarts**

 **Chapter 1**

"Get out!" Dad screams, crumpling an empty beer can. He chucks it on the floor where it rolls to the corner. "Severus, get out of this house now!" He yells again. I dodge past him quickly and run out the front door. My feet slipping on the icy cold grass in the front garden. I didn't dare to stop and put a pair of shoes on before I went. Dad looked angry enough to hit me. He never used to be like this. It's ever since he lost his job. He had to get work at a factory packaging stuff. He hates it. The hours are long and they pay is nowhere near as good as it used to be in his other job. Not that it matters, he drinks all the money he earns, or most of it. He gambles the rest. Occasionally he does win and comes back in a good mood. I can hardly remember the last time that happened though.

Sometimes, like today, he comes home in an even worse mood than usual. He normally just rants and rages at me and mum, but sometimes, like today, he just throws me out the house for the night. I normally go into the back garden and just sleep in the shed. This is the first time he's done it in autumn. Normally, it's not that bad because it's a warm summer's night, but it's a cold September night now. I can see my breath forming into steam as I breathe in and out. Maybe mum will be able to sneak me out a blanket or something so I don't get hypothermia or something. She might not be able to sneak out though, dad might make her go to bed with him and stay there.

The first time he kicked me out the house, she tried to help me and he hit her. I only saw him hit her once, but then the next morning after he had left for work and she let me in the house, her face was swollen and around her eye was a huge purple bruise. There were also small bluey purple bruises running up her arms. She never tried to stop him again.

I don't know why she doesn't stop him. She can use magic after all. She says it's not allowed, in the presence of muggles, that's my dad – a muggle. He knows about magic, he's married to witch of course he knows, but mum says there are laws against it. She says she could be thrown in the wizarding prison. She says there are creatures who guard it who suck out all the happiness out of you. Make you re-live your worst moments. They can even suck your soul out. I think that the law should make exceptions though. My fingers and toes go numb when I have to sleep outside.

It's not time to go to sleep yet, but I go into the shed anyway to get out of the bitter wind howling around me. I sit on the small wooden stool and look out the dirty cracked window across the field at the river. Lily and Petunia Evans are playing there. They're wrapped up in thick winter coats with woollen gloves on. They're also wearing wellies and are kicking damp newly fallen leaves at each other and laughing. I wish I had a coat to wrap up in.

Petunia is standing under a large oak that still has quite a few leaves left to fall. Petunia kicks an extra large pile at Lily and then something odd happens. All the leaves on the oak tree Petunia is standing under just fall off. Straight onto Petunia's head. Lily just stands there and laughs at her before they turn around and go back to their house.

It's strange that all the leaves fell off at once, especially straight after Petunia kicked a load of leaves at Lily. Especially when the leaves all fell on Petunia. It's not the first time I've seen strange things happen around Lily Evans. It's only small things. Nothing huge that makes her stand out from the rest of the people in my class, but strange things all the same.

One time a boy called Thomas Mason flicked a piece of paper at her and only a few seconds later he tripped on the floor. Only there was nothing for him to trip over. Another time one of Lily's friends, Carolyn, was climbing a tree and lost her grip, I saw both her hands come off the trunk, but somehow she hovered in mid air. Not for very long, not even for a second, and then she had a grip again. Lily was standing next to me, staring at her the whole time.

I think she might be like me and mum, magic. I don't want to scare her by saying anything though. Her parents are muggles, and her sister isn't showing any signs of magic, and if she was magic she would be getting her Hogwarts letter about now. Well, technically someone would come to her house and explain it to her parents, but I don't think they will send someone, Petunia would have shown signs of magical traits by now if she were a witch.

It's getting really dark now, but I can still see. The sky is like a sea of inky blue silk with tiny pinpricks of lights that are really far off stars scattered across the galaxy. A few small grey clouds swirl around the sky, concealing the moon. They soon move though, showing the almost full moon. It shines into the shed, making weird shadows dance around on the floor. It's getting colder and colder so I decide to curl up and try to sleep.

Mum rouses me from my sleep in the early hours of the morning with a blanket.

"Sorry, I couldn't bring one any sooner." She whispers as I sit up, numb from the cold. "I have to go now or he'll wonder where I am." She leaves as quietly as she came. I pull the thick folds of the blanket around me, it slowly warming me up. I soon get feeling back into my body and I lean against the wooden wall of the shed and doze off again until the pale sunlight drifting through the window wakes me.

I wake up stiff and needing a hot bath, but there was no chance of that, especially on a school day. I sit by the window, snuggled in the warmth of the blanket until I see dad leave for work, looking angry as usual. As soon as he leaves, I slip the blanket off me and run into the house. I'll leave the blanket there so that if he throws me out again I won't be as cold.

"Hurry up," Mum says, handing me a brown bag with my lunch in. "You'll have to eat your breakfast on the way to school, you don't have time." I dart upstairs and give my face a good scrub. I still feel dirty but that's all I have time for. I change into my school uniform and pull on my tight, too small school blazer as I run downstairs.

"Here you go." Mum puts an apple by my lunch as I put my feet inside my worn, hole riddled, black school shoes. I grab my stuff and race out the front door, taking a large bite of apple as I go. I'm already running late.

"Hey, Snape." I turn around and see Lily and Petunia Evans walking behind me. Petunia's laughing and I can see Lily trying not snigger.

"What do you want Evans?" I ask Petunia, wishing that people would just leave me alone.

"You would have thought that by now you would know how to dress yourself." She laughs.

"What do you mean?" I snarl, oh know, what have I done now? I didn't have anytime to check himself before I had to leave for school. Did I put on a dirty pair of trousers or something? Petunia just laughs harder. Idiot.

"You've got your jumper inside out." Lily says, elbowing her sister gently to get her to stop laughing so harshly. I glanced down and see that she is right. I quickly chuck the apple core in a bush and fling my bag on the floor, hurriedly taking the jumper off and turning it the right way out and put it back on as the Evans sisters passes me. I'm grateful she told me before I got to school. That could have been even more embarrassing.

"Thanks." I muttered, I can feel my usually pale cheeks flooding scarlet. I hurry on, still worried that I am going to be late. As I get through the gates a couple of older students ambush me.

"Hey, Snape, is it true your parents can't even afford to feed you properly." One jeered. I try to ignore them and walk on, seething with anger. Just because my parents didn't have a lot of money, it didn't mean everyone else was better than me.

"Hey, loser, we were talking to you." The other boy said, leaping down from the brick wall he had been sitting on. He laughs at me and then punches me hard in the guts. It really hurts. I'm used to them doing it now, but it's still painful. I bite my lip so hard it starts to bleed to stop myself from calling out in pain. They'd only punch me again if I did that. Anger swells up in me and as the older boy who punched me sat back down again, high-fiving the other boy, it explodes out of me. The brick wall the boys were sitting on suddenly had a large crack running down it and then the bricks started to break up and collapse between them. The boys yelped and leaped up immediately and a teacher noticed.

"What are you boys doing?" She demands, coming over. "Were you sitting on that wall, you know it's old and crumbling, besides it's against the rules to be sitting on it." She looks really angry. "You two should be in form anyway, come with me." I smile to myself, despite the pain in my stomach, and slipped away unseen. At least they would get what they deserved know. I know I have to try and control outbursts of magic like that, but when I am angry or scared it's difficult. I have to stop it though. What if someone noticed?

I run to my classroom, aware that the last bell was about to go, declaring me late any minute, and sat down by my desk just in the nick of time because my teacher, Mr Edwards, walks in a second later.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or favourited/followed it. I hope you e_** _ **njoy this chapter and please let me know what you think.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 2**

"Snape, Snape, are you even paying attention?" Mr Edwards yells at me halfway through the lesson, pulling me out of my daydream. What does he want now? I turn to face him. I had been looking out of the window and day dreaming for most of the lesson again. My thoughts move from Lily Evans possibly being a witch and onto algebra.

"Sorry." I mutter and the class started to snigger.

"I asked you if 4X+2Y=20 and 7X-3Y=9 what does Y equal?" He asked, holding out the piece of chalk so I will get up and work it out on the blackboard at the front. I ignore this and work it out in my head.

"Y would equal 4." I say simply. I already knew how to do this. My mum made sure my school work was slightly advanced, especially in maths because it could be useful at Hogwarts, especially if I end up taking Arthimancy. Mr Edwards looks angry.

"And what does X equal?" He asked, trying to catch me out.

"Three." I reply simply. He looks even more infuriated, but as I am correct, he can't really do anything about it and I carry on gazing out the window for the lesson while Mr Edwards spends the rest of the lesson picking on other people to answer questions. As soon as the lesson ended I put my stuff back into my bag and hurry out. I shove through the crowds forming as people poured out of classrooms. I have PE next and I want to get changed before most of the class get into the changing rooms.

I'm just changing into my baggy shorts when Liam Walton walks in. "Hey Severus." He sneers clapping me on the back. I ignore him and try to pull my shorts up, but he kicks them away. "What's up Snapey? Lost your shorts?" I sigh. This day is not getting any better. I bend down to pick them up but one of Liam's cronies, Harry, picks the shorts up and starts to hold them above my head. He's pretty tall and I'm one of the shortest in the year so I have no hope of getting them back.

"I think you can get them up here." He laughs, chucking them on top of the lockers. I jump up onto the bench next to the lockers and lean up to get them. "Nice pants Sevy." Harry laughs as I get them.

"Severus Snape! Get down there this instant!" I turn around and see Coach Landy glaring at me. I quickly jump down and pull my shorts on. "Instead of rugby you can run around the field for the hour." He says. I almost heave a sigh of relief. He thinks he's giving me a punishment, but he's really saving me from an hour of humiliation. I hate rugby, I'm small and skinny which makes me an easy target. Harry and Liam always gang up on me and I normally end up with loads of cuts from being trampled on with studded shoes. Running will be a lot easier. At least something good came of them bullying me. Running isn't that bad. It will stop me from getting cold too. I'm just glad it was PE I was caught climbing on the lockers in. Any other lesson and I would have probably got a caning. Dad would have murdered me if I got myself caned. I've never been caned before, but even Liam Walton was crying when he came out the headmaster's office after being caught cheating in a test. I quickly finish getting changed and head out with the rest of my class to the field.

"Snape, get running, and I will be checking on you so don't think you can get away with walking." Coach Landy says and I quickly start jogging as he starts the lesson. It's still pretty cold outside, but running keeps me warm. Coach Landy may check up on me every so often, but I know his pattern in checking up on me. I only need to run when I go past the rest of my class, but I do run most of the time as well. I want to keep fit. I might want to get on the quidditch team when I get to Hogwarts so I want to be in good shape.

After the lesson I run inside and am changed by the time Harry and Liam get inside. Coach Landy always lets us go out before the end of the lesson if we're changed. I rush outside and head to a quiet corner. It's break now so I have 15 lonely minutes outside in the bitter cold before another lesson, lunch and then two more lessons. I have history after break, which isn't too bad. I don't need history when I'm at Hogwarts. We get taught history of magic so muggle history is just pointless to me. After lunch I've got Latin followed by English. Latin might come in useful at Hogwarts because most spells originate from it so when I am in my sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts and am studying spell theory, knowing what spells mean translated will put me at an advantage.

I dig around in my bag and find a few coins. The bell rings suddenly. If I'm quick I can run down to the chippy and buy myself a hot pie and make it back to school in time. I decide to go. I didn't have much breakfast and at my school you can't go off premises at lunch so I have to eat the small sandwich mum makes for me. I don't know why they let us off at break and not at lunch. I suppose it's so we're not out as long and some old guy doesn't get scared by a loud group of teenagers smoking by his house for an hour.

I pick my bag out of the dirt and half walk, half run to the gates. I sign out with the teacher there and cross the road quickly. The chippy's only five minutes away, but there's often a queue because loads of students go at break for a snack. I'm one of the first to reach the chippy from my school today so I only have to wait behind a couple of girls who are talking loudly. It takes me a moment to realise that it's Lily Evans and one of her friends. Lily doesn't buy anything but her friend gets a portion of chips.

"Next." The guy at the counter says, looking bored.

"Steak and kidney pie." I say, stepping nearer the counter. He grabs one and wraps it up in greasy newspaper and holds his hand out. I pass him the sweaty coins, grab a fork thingy off the side and head out. Lily and Sally, the girl Lily's with, walk ahead of me. Lily is squeezing tomato sauce from a sachet onto Sally's chips and she eats a couple. I dig into my pie, not realising how hungry I am until I taste the hot meat in my mouth. It's burning hot, so I have to swallow it quickly, but it tastes so good. Better than what I'll get at school for lunch.

As I watch the girls in front of me, Sally trips and as she falls, drops the cone of chips. I see them hover for a fraction of a second in mid-air before Lily lunges over and grabs them before they splatter all over the ground. Sally quickly stands up and wipes the grit off her skirt.

"Thanks." She muttered, taking the chips off Lily. Clearly she didn't notice anything strange. Lily has to be careful. Some muggles might notice a small thing like that, she was lucky. She won't even know that she's a witch though. It's just been drilled into me not to let people see my magic, so I automatically cringe when Lily does it. I should tell Lily who she really is. She should know. She shouldn't be forced to suppress her magic. None of us should.

I carry on walking behind them, swallowing my pie ravenously, despite the tingling heat it burns my tongue with. They laugh and chat as they go, but Lily doesn't use accidental magic again. They sign back in with the teacher and I sign in after them before heading to a quiet corner to read for the remaining couple of minutes that I have left of break.

The sound of the school bell startles me as I am pulled from my book back to reality. I'm reading A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore. It's a book on the first year book list for Hogwarts, but I've already read it countless. It's really interesting though. I can't wait to go to Hogwarts and learn how to brew potions using all the herbs and fungi in it. I'm not really supposed to bring it out of the house. Mum's scared that a muggle might see it and get suspicious. I sneak books out all the time though. Mum's never caught me.

I've read all her old school textbooks at least twice, even the ones from when she was studying for her NEWTs. The ones about creating spells are particularly interesting. I can't wait to get to Hogwarts and start creating spells of my own. I've memorised the theory of it already, I can't practise though because we live in a muggle community so the ministry of magic would think my mum was using magic in a muggle populated area and take her to Azkaban. Leaving me with dad. He'd never let me go to Hogwarts if that happened. The only reason mum has persuaded him to let me go is because it's a free boarding school. Money wouldn't be as tight because I'd only have to be at home during the summer. I don't mind not coming back here for Easter or Christmas. I have no friends here, I hope at Hogwarts I might finally fit in though.


	3. Chapter 3

_**I've made a trailer for this fanfic, the link is below, the sound is a bit weird at the start I don't know why, but please watch and lemme know what you think (for some reason this website sometimes takes out the web address bit of the website when you put links so if it has done that you just need to put the web address for Youtube in front of it):**_

 _ **watch?v=8MXFpuBH2CM**_

 ** _Once again thank you for your reviews, I love hearing what you guys think and I want as much feedback as possible, positive or negative :)._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 3**

History passes slowly. I have to sit and copy notes that the teacher's writing on the board. We're doing about Henry VII. It's only about the 50th time we've had to do it at school. Why do teachers think we're so interested in it anyway? I learnt when I was 5 that Henry VII was really a wizard and he kept re-marrying because his wives gave birth to squibs. They just also happened to be girls so muggles think that he re-married because he wanted an heir.

I eventually get so bored that I sneak the book out and start reading it again. I am so entranced by it that I don't notice that my teacher's droning voice has stopped and everyone is silent and staring. Staring at me. The teacher coughs loudly and I look up.

"Thank you Mr Snape, now would you like to tell me what is so interesting that you simply had to stop paying attention to my lesson?" I feel my face burning bright red. He storms over to me and rips the textbook from my hands. "What's this?" He asks, his face turning tomato red with anger.

"A book sir." I reply. It's pretty obvious. He's probably going to tell me up for being cheeky though.

"Don't use that tone with me." He shouts. "I mean why were you reading it in my lesson?" He looks at the front cover and wrinkles his nose up in disgust. "A thousand magical herbs and Fungi?" He says in a mocking tone. "I don't remember that being on the school reading list." The class burst out laughing and I feel myself flush a deeper red. "As you seem to be struggling to pay attention with it in your bag, you can come and collect it at the end of the day."

"Yes sir." I mutter and I start looking at the board as he goes back to the board. My class carry on staring at me for a few more seconds, but I ignore them and face the front, burning with embarrassment. They soon forget about me and start listening to the teacher again. I really can't wait to go to Hogwarts.

The rest of the day goes in a blur. All my lessons bore me to death as usual. I don't really see the point in coming to muggle school anyway. How's it going to help me at Hogwarts. Mum can teach me how to read, write and do basic maths. That's all I need to know for Hogwarts. It's probably something to get me out of the house 5 days a week. Or it could be because the muggle authorities make all children go to school so they'd send people round to find out why I don't go.

I approach my history teacher's door and knock on it tentatively. "Yes, come in." He says to me. I walk in and the door closes behind me. He looks up from his desk, sees me and sighs. "Ah, Mr Snape, here to collect your book."

"Yes sir." I say as he opens his desk drawer to take it out. "I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again."

"I should hope not." He says. "If it happens again you will be getting 200 lines."

"Yes sir." I say and he hands me the book and I turn to leave.

"And Mr Snape?" He adds.

"Yes sir?" I ask, turning back round to face him.

"You're a bright boy, I would advise reading something more productive than reading about 'magical plants'." I blush a little. He thinks it's some dumb book about magic. I mean it is a book about magical plants, but what he doesn't realise is that it's true.

"Yes sir, one of my mum's friends told me that her son liked it and that I should read it. I didn't like it, it was just out of politeness." I lie. He nods dubiously at me. I'm not sure if he believes me.

"Well that will be all, I expect you want to get off home." He dismisses me. I don't really want to go home, but I have to. I walk out of the classroom and walk slowly out of the school gates, scuffing my already falling apart school shoes on the pavement as I go.

It starts to rain slowly as I walk and by the time I get home I am soaked and a storm is raging outside. I go up to my room to change out of my wet clothes and stare out of the window. Black clouds are swirling ominously in the sky, shrouding the sun. Rain is lashing down angrily on the window pains and I can hear the trees howling as the wind batters them. The lightning is dancing to thunder's mournful tune, lighting up the sky with flashes.

"Severus?" I jump as my mum calls my name softly whilst knocking on the door.

"Yes mum?" I ask as she comes in, pushing the door firmly closed behind her.

"I'm sorry about last night." She says, sitting down besides me on my bed, wrapping her arms around me.

"It wasn't your fault." I tell her.

"I wish I could do something but..." She trails off. "It's only another year though. Then you will be off to Hogwarts." I nod.

"Mum?" I ask. I should tell her about Lily

"Yes?"

"I think there might be a muggle born in my year." Mum pauses, missing a beat.

"What makes you think that?" She asks me.

"Strange things happen when she's around. It's accidental magic." I tell her.

"Are you sure?" She asks. I nod.

"I've been noticing for a while. She uses accidental magic a lot, nothing noticeable to muggles, but for me, it's obvious because it happens to me sometimes."

"I don't think you should say anything. If she is a muggle born then she'll be getting her Hogwarts letter in a couple of years anyway." Mum says. "When it's her 11th birthday, she'll be told about the magical world and then you can speak to her about it."

"B-but, mum, she's the only person in this place who could possibly understand me." I protest. "No one gets me at school." Mum sighs.

"You know how it is Severus, she won't believe you and then she'll tell your school and they'll just make your life worse." She tells me.

"Lily's not like that though." I argue. Mum sighs.

"You don't know that. I know it's difficult but it's only for another couple of years now." She tells me, stroking my hair out of my eyes. I hate it when she does that so I wriggle away.

"Fine." I huff, my fingers crossed behind my back. Mum doesn't understand what it's like at school. She doesn't know what Lily's like. Lily would never tell anyone even if she didn't believe me, not even Petunia.

I am going to tell Lily. I don't care what mum says. She doesn't need to know about it. I just need to find the right time to tell her.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Thank you for all your reviews, please continue to let me know what you think. I want feedback, positive or negative, no flames though please.**_

 ** _Cct0331: Sorry I forgot to say last chapter, most of the chapters will be from Severus' POV but there will be a few from Lily's, I will always specify when the POV changes to Lily's._**

 ** _Trigger warning: This chapter will include quite graphic child abuse, if this is a major trigger for you do not read the bits that are labelled with the trigger warning._**

 ** _This chapter has dialogue from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the first part when Severus is talking to Lily and Petunia, I don't own that as well as the usual disclaimer._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 4**

 **3 days later**

"Stop it!" Petunia shrieked as the flower in Lily's hand opened and closed. I have to tell her now. She's blatantly using magic in the presence of a muggle. She needs to know what she is.

"It's not hurting you." Lily replied softly, but still she did as Petunia wanted and closed her hand around the flower, crumpling it's smooth petals and through it on the ground.

"It's not right." Petunia told her, gazing at the flower, following it to the floor. "How do you do it?" She asked her. I can tell from her tone of voice that there's a part of her that's secretly jealous. She secretly wants to do it like Lily can. She can't though. She's a muggle. I think it's time for Lily to find out who she is. I didn't want to tell her in front of Petunia, but if she's doing magic in front of her, it doesn't matter anyway. Petunia would have known when Lily was told that she was a witch when she turned 11 anyway.

"Isn't it obvious?" I say, coming out from behind the bush I was standing in. Petunia screams at my sudden appearance and runs towards the swings. Even Lily, who hasn't moved still looks slightly startled. I start to regret doing this. Maybe I should have listened to mum, but I can't turn back now. I gaze at Lily, ignoring Petunia.

"What's obvious?" Lily asks me, clearly confused about everything going on. I glance at Petunia, half nervous, half excited to tell Lily who she really is. Petunia is standing by the swings, watching closely. I lower my voice.

"I know what you are." Lily looks even more confused at this.

"What do you mean?" She asks, taking a step closer to me. I can't tell if she will believe me or not. I hope she will.

"You're – you're." I stammer before finally spitting it out. "A witch." I whisper quietly so that Petunia cannot hear. Lily's expression changes immediately. She turns with her nose up in the air and walks to Petunia.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody." She says to me.

"No!" I can feel my face going bright red and disappointment surges through me. I run after them as they stand staring at me, holding to one of the swing poles. "You are." I insist. "You are, I've been watching you for a while" Judging by Lily's expression she still doesn't believe me. "But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one and I'm a wizard." Petunia laughs loudly. It feels like a shard of ice, twisting through my heart.

"Wizard." She laughs. She's starting to get over my sudden appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy!" She turns to Lily. "They live down Spinner's End by the river." She tells her, with a tone of voice that is dripping with disapproval. So what I live on Spinner's End. What's it to do with her? "Why have you been spying on us?" She asks. I nearly snort with laughter. Why would I spy on her?

"Haven't been spying," I tell them, starting to sweat in the unusually hot September sun. "Wouldn't spy on you anyway." I say, I know it's petty, but she deserves it. "You're a muggle." I almost laugh at her expression. She doesn't know what a muggle is, but from my tone she clearly understands that it's an insult.

"Come on Lily we're leaving." Rage bubbles through me. She's not in charge of Lily. Lily follows her, glaring at me as they go. Bitter disappointment runs through me. There's no point chasing after them. Petunia will just laugh at me again. We'll see who's laughing when Lily gets her Hogwarts acceptance letter.

I watch as they walk out of the playground and down the street as the playground gate clangs shut. I walk over to it and open it, glancing in Lily's direction once more. She's not looking at me. Petunia is talking to her. Probably telling her to keep away from me. Telling her that I'm a weirdo. She'll see that I'm right. One day.

I turn away and walk down the path to the river and then on down to Spinner's End, where my house is. Petunia looked down on me for living here. She's right in that it's not a particularly nice place to live. You only have to look at the dirty river running behind my house and the disused factories to see that, but she doesn't have to look down on me because of it. I bet she's never gone hungry for a death in her life.

 *****TRIGGER WARNING, IF CHILD ABUSE IS A MAJOR TRIGGER DO NOT READ THE NEXT PART OF THE CHAPTER*****

"Severus, I told you to be back in time for lunch." Mum scolds me as I walk into the house. My dad is standing next to her.

"Severus, if you disobey your mum in future, I will discipline you." He says angrily, his fingers tapping on his belt.

"Sorry father." I mutter, bowing my head and hoping that he's in one of his better moods today. "Today, I will be lenient and only not let you eat your lunch. It's cold now anyway." I nod my head, thankful that he wasn't going to take his belt out on me. It's still hard to ignore the empty hole in my stomach though. My dad still makes me sit down at the table while he and my mum eat their lunch.

"Would you like pudding?" Mum turns to dad when he's finished his plate. He shakes his head and grabs her wrist as she picks up the plates.

"What's the hurry?" He asks her. He starts gripping her wrist tightly. Then sees me staring. "Severus stand in the corner, I need to teach you a lesson about being meek. A young boy should sit and look at the table when he has finished eating. After this lesson you won't forget it." He demands. I don't know really what I've done but I obey quickly, not wanting to anger him further.

"Tobias." My mum begs. I hear a loud crack and my mum cries out in pain. I want to turn and see what is happening, but I'm too scared of what he'll do to me. I hear a crack and realise dad has taken off his belt. Then a flash of pain sears down my back.

"You will keep your eyes to yourself in future or you'll get a dozen more." He yells.

"Yes sir." I whisper quickly, barely able to stand with the pain shooting down my back.

"You will go to your room for the rest of the day." He tells me.

"Yes sir." I say, and turn to go upstairs. I don't know what set my dad off so angry. He seemed fine. Well as fine as he ever is. I probably should have been more careful about the time, but he's normally not that mad when I'm late. I just end up having to clear up after lunch.

When I reach my room I push the door open as I hear another loud crack downstairs. There's a loud shout of pain from my mum and then I hear a thump, as if she's fallen over in pain. I have no choice but to sit on my bed and listen as my dad hits my mum downstairs and hope that my throbbing back stops hurting soon. It feels raw. When I strip off my shirt I see a long, angry red welt there.


	5. Chapter 5

_**I just want to say a huge thank you for reading this, it has already reached over 1,700 views! Crazy I know. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourited this story, it means so much to me.**_

 _ **Just so you have an idea of where this story is heading I'll give an outline of things (without spoilers obviously). Originally I was planning on 11 chapters of Pre Hogwarts stuff, but I've realised it's going to have to be a few more than that so there will probably be at least 15 chapters of Lily and Severus before Hogwarts. Then there will be maybe 30 chapters of them at Hogwarts, a lot of that will probably be in the later years because that's when their characters develop more, but there will still be a few chapters for each year they're at Hogwarts. The last part will be after Hogwarts, it should be the shortest part, but I'm not sure how many chapters yet. There will be quite a few time jumps throughout the story, but they will be clearly labelled so it shouldn't be too confusing.**_

 ** _Once again thank you for your reviews and please let me know what you think of this chapter :)._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 5**

My back still hurts when I wake up in the morning. After my dad finished with my mum I heard him go out. The door slammed shut behind him. At about 7pm my mum came up with a glass of water and two dry slices of bread. Her face was a mess of purple bruises. Her eyes are swollen and red.

I was woken up about midnight by my dad coming home. It didn't surprise me that he was drunk. He crashed around downstairs a lot and there was the sound of glass shattering. I heard my mum go downstairs, but he shouted at her and then she screamed. My dad came upstairs then, but thankfully he went straight to his room and didn't disturb me. I didn't hear mum come back upstairs.

I get up slowly, to put my back in as little pain as possible and I go to the bathroom and wash quickly before getting into my school uniform and going downstairs. Mum is in the kitchen and is cooking something. I see a tissue with blood splatters on it and go to put it in the bin and see shards of glass sitting in it.

"Porridge Severus?" Mum asks.

"No thanks." I reply as she turns around, revealing a cut on her forehead. He must have cut her with the glass last night. I don't want to hang around at home any longer than I have to. Dad hasn't left yet either and I don't want to face him this morning. "I'm not hungry, I'll just eat an apple on my way to school." I tell her picking one up along with the money mum gives me for lunch for the week. I hear movement from upstairs. "Bye." I say and quickly escape out the door as I hear the familiar creaking of the floorboards as someone comes downstairs.

I'm way too early to walk straight to school, I'd be waiting around for half an hour. I might as well walk around the town for a bit. At school people make fun of me, if I wander around people will be too busy to care what I'm doing.

I wish I had thought to grab my coat on the way out. I wasn't thinking properly though. I was just trying to escape. I don't know how I'm going to manage these next two years. Once I go to Hogwarts, it'll be okay. I only have to come back for 6 weeks at summer. Lily and I might be friends though. She'll know that I wasn't lying and we're the only people from around here that'll be going to Hogwarts. Maybe we could meet up throughout the holidays.

I'm not sure if we're going to be friends at Hogwarts. I want to be in Slytherin, but Lily's muggle born. She can't be put in Slytherin. I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be that bad, maybe if we both got in there. Slytherin's where I really want to be though. My mum was in Slytherin. She doesn't often talk about her days at Hogwarts, but I know that.

After about fifteen minutes I start heading to school. I reach my classroom just as the bell goes. Good. My dad would've killed me if I was late for school. I take my seat quickly as my teacher starts the register.

About halfway through the lesson the person next to me taps me while the teacher is facing the board. I turn to them. I don't think I've ever had a conversation with them. They hand me a note. I look at it. The paper looks like it has just been torn out of the corner of a sheet of paper that we are supposed to be taking notes on. The front has my name written on, but I don't recognise the writing. I unfold it and read the writing inside that was hurriedly scrawled on it.

 _Severus,_

 _We need to talk. Meet me by the river near your house after school. Don't let anyone see you._

 _~LE_

I didn't need the initials to tell me who wrote the note. It was Lily. I look across the classroom and see that she is looking at me. I give her a small nod and she smiles slightly before looking away from me. I watch her for a couple more seconds before turning to face the board once more.

I'm not really paying attention to the lesson. I'm trying to work out an idea for a new spell. I want something to make someone hover upside down. Nothing particularly harmful, but I know that Slytherin students get bullied more than anyone else at Hogwarts and I want to be able to protect myself. I don't want to use spells seen before though. Other students would know the counter curse to them.

I know the Latin for lift is Levare and Corpus means body. I can work from there. Maybe I can use the word for ankle – Tarso – instead of Corpus to have the desired effect of being lifted by the ankle. Or maybe I can merge Levare and Tarso together and then add Corpus at the end. I make a note of several variations of these. Levarso Corpus. Levaro Corpus. Levaso Corpus. None of the spells sound right though. This spell is going to take a lot of work. Once I've perfected it I want to make it non-verbal. All spells can be used verbally and non-verbally, but if I can make it easier to be done non-verbally. I don't want other people finding out my spells.

"You wanted to see me." I say, later on after school. I am by the river, I got out of school a bit early so I got here before Lily, but I've only been waiting for a couple of minutes.

"I wanted to talk to you, about yesterday." She says. "I didn't want to leave yesterday, but Tuney was there and she wanted to leave. It took long enough to persuade her not to tell everyone at school about what you were saying."

"Thank you." I say to her. I could've coped with the laughter that followed me wherever I went, but she was just trying to be nice.

"I don't know if I believe you." She tells me.

"Have you ever done stuff, without meaning to? When you're scared, or angry?" I ask her.

"How did you know?" She asks. "I thought I was going crazy. Things just happen. Strange things, that shouldn't be possible." I nod.

"It happens to me to. I know how to control my magic a bit so it doesn't happen much, but it used to. When I was younger." I tell her.

"How do you control it?" She asks me.

"I read books, but you'll get taught it at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts?" She asks questioningly.

"It's a school for witches and wizards. You go when you're 11." I tell her. She shakes her head in disbelief.

"How do I know that this is all true though? It could all just be coincidences those things that happened when I was angry."

"Do you think that they're just coincidences?" I ask her. She shakes her head. "Promise you won't tell anyone about what I'm going to do." I tell her. She nods.

"I won't, I swear." She says. I look around to make sure that no one's nearby to see. Then I concentrate on the river we're standing next to. I focus hard. I've never tried this trick yet, but I know the basic principal behind it. In theory I should be able to do it, even without a wand. A wand is just used to channel magic through. All magical people can do magic without one, it's just more difficult.

Slowly the water starts to whirl around in a circle. I concentrate harder and some starts shooting up in streams. I will it over to us and shape it into a wreath of flowers on top of Lily's head, it hovering just millimetres from her fiery red hair. She looks up in wonder and smiles.

That's when someone steps out of a nearby tree. Still concentrating on the water I look. It's Petunia.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Once again, thank you to everyone who has left me a review, I love hearing from you guys._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 6**

"Tuney, what are you doing here?" Lily asks in amazement.

"What are you doing here, with him?" She asks angrily. "You said you'd stay away from him. He's a freak." She yells. I will the water into a tight ball as she turns to run off but I concentrate and it whirls towards her and splashes down her back.

"Severus!" Lily exclaims. "Tuney, please I can explain, I just..." Petunia turns around to glare at her.

"Stay away from me, freak." Then she runs off. Lily stares after her.

"Why did you do that Severus?" She asks. "I could have talked to her, explained." I shake my head.

"Some muggles, they don't understand. She would have never understood." I tell her, but she looks really upset. "I'm sorry Lily. I just..." I trail off. "She shouldn't have been spying on us."

"I should talk to her. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" She says. I nod, but I think she's still angry with me.

"Bye." I say and she runs off in the direction that Petunia went off in just a minute ago. I head back home, disappointed. Everything was going so well. Then Petunia showed up. I hope Lily can persuade her not to tell anyone. I don't think anyone would believe her if she did, but it's still best for her to not say anything.

I'm pleased with my magic though. I didn't expect to be able to do so much. I guess learning all the studying books paid off. A one off piece of magic won't get noticed. If the ministry wonders why there was magic used in a muggle town, they can look at the records and they'll just think it was accidental magic from Lily or me. They won't know that I already know how to control my magic. They wouldn't like that.

I find it quite difficult, but it'll probably get easier when I go to Hogwarts. I'll have proper teachers there and a wand. I can't wait until my mum buys me a wand. I wonder what core it will have. I want to try out loads of spells when I get it. I won't really be able to do much before I get to Hogwarts because the ministry don't like us knowing proper spells before we go to Hogwarts. They'll think it's strange if as soon as I get a wand there's loads of advanced magical activity in the area.

My mind goes back to the crown of flowers made of water I made go above Lily's head. She believes me now at least. The look of amazement and wonder on her face when the water flowers were hovering above her head. She understands now. She knows why she's always felt that she's never fitted in.

I hope we do get chance to talk tomorrow. I don't know if we will though. She'll need time to get over the shock. She took it better than most muggles would. I could imagine it being quite a shock. Being brought up your whole life thinking that magic isn't real and now she's found out that it's not only real, but that she has magic.

Petunia will be a nuisance though. I can tell. Lily might try to calm her down, but I think she'll be jealous of Lily. She's a muggle after all. When Lily's parents find out that she's a witch, on her 11th birthday, I wouldn't be surprised if Petunia tried to tell them that she's a freak. She's not. None of us are. Muggles just don't like the idea that some have magic and some don't. They don't want to be at our mercy. I get that, if we decided to kill all the muggles, then they couldn't do a lot about it. Their pathetic guns and stuff could easily be blocked by a simple shield charm and we could kill them with the utter of a spell.

"I was beginning to think you had lost your way home." Mum says as I walk into the house.

"Sorry," I say quickly. I don't want Dad finding out that I was late home. The throbbing in my back may have stopped, but it was agony and he may hit me more than once. "I was talking to a friend."

"It's good that you're starting to integrate more Severus, you've never really fitted in. You need to develop those skills though, or you'll get lonely at Hogwarts." I restrain myself from rolling my eyes. The only reason I don't talk to anyone around here is because they're all muggles, with the exception of Lily, the only thing that I'm really interested in is magic. Maybe me and Lily will talk more now. I'm the only one around here that she can talk to about magic.

I wonder what her parents will say to everyone else here when Lily goes off to Hogwarts. Probably something similar to what my parents are going to say if people wonder where I am. I've got a scholarship to a private school in Scotland, because it's in Scotland I can only come back in the summer. I mean it is partly true. It's private, private to muggles, and it is in Scotland.

I walk up to my room. I might as well start getting my homework done. I probably won't get a chance once dad's home, especially if he's still in a foul mood. He'll probably send me to bed for the slightest infraction of rules, or kick me out of the house. Or beat me again. It doesn't take me long to finish it and I am soon sitting on my chair, reading. I took a muggle book out of the school library the other day. I want to see what they're like. It's the first in a series called 'The Famous Five', it seems a bit pathetic to be honest. If they were magic they could just use 'Alohamora' to unlock the door and escape. I'm not sure I'm going to bother reading any more muggle books.

I slam the book shut just as mum calls me for dinner. And dad gets in. I walk downstairs, my heart beating fast. I didn't hear any shouting when the door closed. That's always a good sign.

"Well hurry up Severus." I hear my dad snap. I rush into the kitchen, just from his tone I can tell he's in a bad mood. Hopefully, I can manage to go the evening without aggravating him. It's doubtful, but I've got to hope.


	7. Chapter 7

T ** _hank you so much to everyone who has left me a review, I love hearing from you guys._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 7**

 _Sev,_

 _Meet me in the patch of trees near the park after school._

 _~LE_

I screw up the note quickly and give a slight nod across the classroom to Lily. She gives me a small smile and then mouths 'Don't let Tuney know'. Then Mr Edwards sees her.

"Miss Evans, if you would please be so kind as to pay attention to the board you may be able to tell me the answer. I don't think the answer is just going to materialise over Mr Snape's head." Lily blushes bright red.

"Sorry sir." She mutters and turns to face the board again. I mean technically I probably could make the answers to the question appear made up of sparks, but if I told Mr Edwards that something tells me that he wouldn't believe me.

The rest of the day goes painfully slowly, but eventually the final bell goes and I rush off to where Lily told me to meet her. She's already there when I get there, breathless from running. "Sorry I got you in trouble earlier." I apologise quickly. She shrugs.

"It was my fault, I should've been more careful." She looks around. "I can't stay long, but can you tell me more, about magic." I nod.

"What do you want to know?" I ask. The subject of magic is so broad I could talk about it to her for days and she'd still be clueless.

"Hogwasps? Was that it? The name of the school you said we'd go to when we're 11?" She says. I stop myself from laughing at this. She is new to this whole magic stuff after all. Hogwasps though. That is pretty funny.

"Hogwarts?" I say. She nods. "Well there are four houses that you get sorted into based on your personality. You have all your lessons and the dormitories are based off the houses." I explain and Lily nods. "You study there for 7 years. The fifth year is the OWL year. It stands for Ordinary Wizarding Level which are kind of like the wizarding version of O levels." I tell her. It's the best way I can describe them to her. "Then in the seventh year you take NEWTS. They're Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests." She laughs at this.

"What does it really stand for?" She asks me, smiling.

"I'm not joking." I say. "We wizards just say it how it is." Lily laughs again at this. "Anyway, they're like A levels." Lily nods again, checking her watch to see the time.

"I can only stay for a few more minutes or it'll look suspicious. Tell me about what goes on in the wizarding world. Are there laws and stuff?" She asks.

"Yeah, we have our own prison and Ministry for Magic to keep the wizarding community in check." I explain. "The prison is called Azkaban and Dementors guard it. They're these creatures that suck all the happiness out of you." Lily shudders at this.

"I have to go." She says.

"I'll see you here tomorrow?" I ask her. She shakes her head.

"Sooner, I'll make some excuse to my friends and we can meet round by the group of trees by the school field. No one'll see us there." I nod.

"I can tell you about the Ministry of Magic then." I say. She nods.

"I can't wait." Then she runs off. I watch her for a few seconds, her fiery red hair flying out behind her. I smile before walking back to my house. I can't wait until tomorrow break.

"You said something about the Ministry of Magic then?" Lily asks me the next day.

"It's basically the government. They make the laws and make sure that muggles don't find out about us."

"Muggles?" She asks.

"Non-magic people. Like Petunia." I tell her. She nods.

"Is your dad a muggle?" She asks.

"How did you know?" I ask. I don't remember ever saying anything about my dad in front of her.

"When you told me that I'm a witch, you didn't say anything about your dad, but you said your mum was a witch. Does he know about your mum being a witch and magic?" She asks. I nod. I want to avert the conversation. She is very sharp though. I only mentioned that my mum was a witch in passing. I wouldn't be surprised if Lily ended up in Ravenclaw.

"Yeah, she told him when he proposed to her." I tell her. "She thought he ought to know if they were marrying."

"So muggles are allowed to know about magic?" She asked. I shook my head.

"Not really. The only exception is family, because my mum was marrying my dad who was a muggle, he could know. Your parents and Petunia will be allowed to know." I pause again. "I think the muggle Prime Minister for England knows as well, which probably means the leader of every country knows about the existence of magic, but that's only for the public's safety. So that if there's a dangerous wizard or witch on the run the muggles know to keep away." I explain.

"Like if someone escaped from Azkaban?" Lily asks.

"I guess, except no one's ever escaped from Azkaban. It's impossible." I tell her.

"And you said muggle Prime Minister, do you have your own Prime Minister?" She asks. I shrug.

"Basically, the role is called Minister for Magic though, not Prime Minister. It's pretty much the same thing though." Lily nods.

"Can we meet up every day after school and you can tell me everything?" She asks. I shrug.

"Maybe, we might have to stop in winter because it'll be too cold." I say.

"I would invite you round mine but... Tuney, you know." She says.

"I'd invite you round mine but..." I trail off. I don't want to tell her about my dad. "My dad is often in a bad mood." She shrugs.

"It's fine. If I have a question that I really want answered in winter, I can write it down and sneak it to you during school." She tells me.

"Yeah." Then the bell goes. "I guess I'll see you after school." I smile.

"Yeah," Lily smiles as I walk off. "And Severus?"

"What?" I ask, turning back. Her fiery red hair is whipping round in the wind, blowing in front of her face. Covering her green, almond shaped eyes. I think she looks beautiful.

"Thank you." I smile at her, and she returns it.

"My pleasure."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Once again, thank you for all your reviews, please let me know what I can do to improve.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 8**

 *****Trigger warning, this section will contain child abuse*****

"Severus, come down here, now!" I hear an angry voice yell. I creep downstairs quickly, wondering what I had done now. "Why didn't you make your bed this morning?" Dad yells at me, his face turning red with anger. I look at the floor, trying not to shake in fear. Why is he always like this? I forgot to make my bed, so what? It didn't kill anyone.

"I forgot." I mutter. I feel more collar being grabbed and I can no longer feel the ground below my feet. He lifts me up so my face is level with his.

"Look at me when you talk to me, and don't forget your manners, boy." He screams in my face. I panic and then realise I forgot to call him sir.

"Sorry sir. I forgot sir." I say quickly, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"This is becoming a bad habit of yours." He says, his voice going quieter as if he's calmed down a bit. He lowers me to the ground. "Nothing a beating won't solve." He doesn't mean the belt does he? Just one lick with it was agony. I don't think I can take any more. "Shirt off." I stand, trembling, and pull my shirt off. He walks behind me and I hear his belt cracking, telling me that he's pulled it off.

CRACK! Pain shoots down my back. Then again. The world starts to spin and I grab the air and manage to hold onto the table as the belt comes down once more. Tears roll down my face as he lashes down on my back again and again.

"Will you forget next time?" He asks, finally putting his belt back on.

"No sir." I cry quietly.

"Good, you can spend the night outside." I pick my shirt up slowly as pain shoots down my back. "Hurry up or you'll get another dozen." I walk as quickly as possible outside and head to the shed. When I get inside, I try to twist around to assess the damage, but it's too painful so I give up. I pull the shirt over my head, wincing as the rough material comes into contact with my sore skin.

 *****End of trigger warning*****

I go to the shed window and gaze out at the autumn evening as the tears continue to pour down my face. I've never been in so much pain. Why doesn't mum do something? Even if she won't do magic surely she can leave him. She could just take me and go. Anything is better than this. Surely, anything. I just hope I can hold on until Hogwarts. It seems so long away though. Two years is a long time to wait.

Lily's POV

"Tuney, do you want to go and play by the river?" I ask, walking into her room. She slams her book shut and stares at me.

"Why would I want to spend time with you, freak?" She says. A knife of betrayal twists through my insides. I wish Tuney would understand. I didn't ask to be a witch. I thought that I was just normal.

"Tuney please, none of this changes things between us." I say, walking towards her and sitting next to her. She moves slightly so that there is more space between us.

"Don't come near me." She snarls. Why is she like this? Before Severus told me about being a witch, we got on so well. I don't understand. Is she jealous?

"Tuney please." I beg. I don't know what I can do to make it up. I wish we could just pretend everything was normal. "I don't know how many times I can tell you, I'm not a freak."

"How do you explain magic then. It's just freaky. You shouldn't be able to do that stuff." She sighs. "Besides, I bet when mum and dad find out they'll just fawn over you. Oh how wonderful Lily. Isn't it amazing? Then I'll be pushed to the side again."

"Again?" I ask her. What does she mean?

"You don't even know?" She laughs harshly. "When I was 5, I got an award for being the best in my class at spelling. You got some crayon and scribbled all over it. Everyone told you that it was so good and no one told me well done. Two years later, I got the role of Mary in the nativity, you came and watched with mum and dad, but you ran away and jumped up on the stage when I was taking my bow and everyone clapped at you!" She says, her voice getting louder. "You, you, you! Everything's always been about you. Who would care about Petunia, when there's Lily around?" That's not fair. I was little. There have been loads of time when people have paid attention to Tuney and not me.

"It wasn't always like that." I argue. "I never intended for it to be like that."

"Well it is, and it's only going to get worse when they find out that you're a freak." She snarls. "Who would want to talk to boring old Petunia when they could talk to Lily, who can do magic and goes to a special school." I see tears starting to form in her eyes.

"I don't think your boring." I tell her. She turns away, wiping a tear from her eye.

"I don't want freaks in my room." She says, folding her arms in anger. I think I just lost my sister. I walk out and close the door behind me. There's nothing more that I can do. I get what she means, but I'm still her sister. I would still talk to her and try telling mum and dad to pay attention to her.

"I'm going for a walk." I tell my mum and she nods.

"Be back for supper." She tells me and I walk outside, shivering slightly in the cold winter air. I wander down by the river and stand on the spot where Severus showed me magic was real. I can still picture the water rising out of the murky river and flowing around my head, shaped like perfect flowers. I stare into the horizons as a single, salty tear drips from one of my eyes as I remember Tuney coming out of the trees. Why did she have to see that? Why couldn't she have gone on thinking Severus was a loony and we could still be friends?

"I'd offer you a tissue, but I don't have one." I turn and see Severus standing next to me. I wipe the tear away with my coat sleeve. Then I realise Severus is shivering and doesn't have a coat. "Here." I shrug off my coat and wrap it round his shoulders.

"Isn't the hero supposed to be the one helping the damsel in distress." I move closer to him and wrap the coat around both of our shoulders.

"Oww." He says, wincing in pain. I look at him and see his eyes are wet with tears to.

"What's wrong?" He shrugs.

"Stuff, how about you?" He asks.

"Just stuff." I reply. I have a feeling his dad's abusive. He didn't really want to talk about his dad when I brought it up at school earlier and he seemed to be in physical pain when I touched him to keep warm. He doesn't want to talk about it though. I'm not going to make him, I don't want to talk about Tuney after all. I should respect his privacy.

"Want to know more about magic?" Severus asks. I think for a moment.

"Is there a spell that can create happiness?" I ask him. He shrugs.

"I don't know about spells, but there's an elixir to induce euphoria." He tells me. "It doesn't really create happiness though. It's just fake." I sigh. I'm not sure if things will ever be the same again.


	9. Chapter 9

**_During the next few chapters there will be quite a few time skips so that I can get on with the main focus of my story, when Lily and Severus are at Hogwarts, but I will say how much time has passed each time to try to avoid confusion. Once again thank you for all your lovely reviews, and please continue to let me know what you think._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 9**

 **4 and a half months later**

"Happy birthday." I smile at her as she arrives at our usual breaktime spot. She smiles back at me.

"Thank you." She says.

"I have chip money, you want to get some?" I offer. I didn't have enough money to get Lily anything so all I can do is offer her some chips. She may not want to though. Her friends have noticed that she's never at break any more and have started to get suspicious. She may not want them to know that she talks to me instead. She nods.

"Thanks." She smiles at me and we walk towards the gates together, quickly so we have enough time without being later for lesson three. These last few months have been amazing. Every breaktime we talk. She asks me about the wizarding world and I answer. I think I've covered most of the stuff that people from non-muggle families will know. I don't want anyone to pick on her because she doesn't know stuff that most people there will know.

"Lily," I spin around just before we walk into the chippy. Sally's standing behind us, staring at Lily. "Is this who you've been with at break, all this time?" Lily blushes bright red.

"I'll get the chips." I mumble quickly, edging into the chippy so that they can talk. As I wait in the line I watch as Lily starts speaking to Sally. Sally looks angry and just walks off. Lily stands staring where she was standing until I come outside with the chips.

"Here." I say, offering her the cone. She smiles and I see her blinking back the tears. She takes one and chews on it.

"Thanks." She pauses for a moment as we walk in silence. "Is this why you've never really had friends, because you knew you'd be going to Hogwarts eventually?" She asks me. I shrug.

"Partly. People just don't like me generally though. I know I don't really talk to them much, but they think they're better than me. I've just learnt not to care though. They're not the ones that get to go to Hogwarts and learn about magic." I tell her.

"At least we can talk to each other." She says, taking some more chips. I nod in agreement, swallowing a mouthful of hot chip. "Why did you never really talk to anyone even when we were younger and first started school." I shrug.

"I guess my mum had told me not to say anything about magic and I was scared of saying something. I don't know why she was so worried about it, I was only little, no one would've believed me." I tell her. She nods.

"She probably didn't want you to get picked on either, I mean how many kids would have laughed at you for saying magic was real? I know I probably would have." She replies.

"True." We walk through the school gates together. "How are things with Petunia?" I ask her. She hasn't really spoken about her in ages. I feel kind of bad because they were really close before I told Lily about magic. Now, I rarely see them even walking to school together.

"She's still annoyed at me. She thinks that because I have magic, I'm a fr-freak." She tells me.

"You're not." I say quickly, giving her the rest of the cone of chips.

"I know, it feels like it though, everyone here is different. I've never even spoken to another wizard apart from you." She tells me. I nod.

"You're the only witch I've spoken to other than my mum, I know how it feels." I say to her. "But still, in a year and a half we'll be going to Hogwarts. We can really be ourselves then." She nods as the bell goes.

"I've got English." Lily says, I nod. I have English too, but we're in different classes. She's a lot better at it than I am. I'm in the bottom class, she's in the top one. I'm awful at it and I'm in the bottom class. I mean who cares about Romeo and Juliet? How is that going to help me in anyway in life? Even for muggles it's a pretty useless subject. Muggles don't need to be able to analyse books.

"I'll see you at lunch then?" I ask her. I don't think her friends will want to talk to her now they know that she hangs out with me.

"Maybe, I'll try talking to Sally. I'm not sure." She shrugs. I guess she does want to try and have a proper conversation with her friends.

"I'll be in the usual place." I tell her. If they don't want to listen to her then I'll be waiting for her. She can comes and find me if she wants. I don't want her to cost her her friends. I'm not worth that. We may be stuck here for another year and a half but she still deserves to be happy in that time. She nods.

 **Lily's POV**

"Sally, listen to me, hear me out. Please." I say, catching up to her in the corridor. She turns to me.

"Why do you talk to that Snape boy?" She snarls.

"Sally, he's not that bad." I say. "What has he ever done to you anyway?" I ask her, in desperation. Everyone seems to hate Severus, and sure he is a bit quiet but still. It's not like he's ever been a bully.

"He's weird." She says. "The way he looks at you, it's like his eyes are boring into your soul."

"Can we at least still be friends?" I ask her. "You don't have to like Severus," I tell her. "I just like talking to him at break. I'm still there the rest of the time." She sighs.

"Fine." She huffs eventually. It sounds as if she's doing me a huge favour by saying she'll still be friends with me despite being friends with Severus. We walk off to the cafeteria and sit where we normally do, but there's an awkward silence between us. You could cut the tension with a knife. She's still clearly angry at me, why I don't know. My friendship with Severus has nothing to do with her. She eventually breaks the silence. "Happy birthday Lily." She says, reaching in her bag and bringing out a carefully wrapped present.

"Thanks." I smile, taking it from her. I unwrap the crinkly, silver paper it's wrapped in carefully and pull out a book. I look at the title and smile. It's exactly what I wanted. The first famous five book. I lean forwards and give Sally a hug.

"Do you want to come round mine after school for a bit?" Sally asks me. I nod, forgetting that I was supposed to meet Severus in the usual place.

"Yeah, it'll be fun."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing what you guys say.**_

 _ **A**_ _ **ll the speech and events of this chapter comes from Snape's memories in the Deathly Hallows, but I thought it was necessary for the timeline to include it, so it's the same as in the book, just from Severus' perspective.**_

 _ **D**_ _ **isclaimer: I am not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 10**

 **3 months later**

I smile as we sit facing each other, cross legged on the grass. "...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters." I remind her. Her face turns pale in panic for a moment.

"But I have done magic outside of school!" She says, her voice sounding scared.

"We're all right." I reassure her. She doesn't need to worry, we can't control our magic yet. "We haven't got our wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it." I explain before adding. "But once you're eleven, and they start training you, then you've got to go careful." I nod. There's a pause in the conversation and Lily picks up a fallen twig an twirls it in the air. I smile. She's clearly imagining it as her wand. Real wands have a magical core though. Then she drops is and leans in, looking slightly anxious.

"It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke." She sounds almost cynical, like she doesn't really believe. "Petunia says you're lying to me." Of course. She should know better than to listen to her, she is only a muggle after all. "Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"

"It's real for us." We'll go to Hogwarts together, in a year and a half from now. In less than a year, Lily's family will know about magic and then maybe Petunia will stop being so horrible to her. I hate Petunia, but I try not to be too rude about her when Lily's around because I know that she misses her friendship. I personally think that if Petunia lets something as stupid as jealousy get in the way of their friendship, then Lily's better off without her, but that Lily's decision to make, not mine. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me."

"Really?" Lily breathes with excitement. I don't know why she's so distrusting of me. I showed her that magic is real so why would I lie to her about Hogwarts.

"Definitely." I smile at her. I can't wait until we go to Hogwarts together. These last few months we've grown so close together.

"And will it really come by owl?" She asks quietly, still sounding in disbelief. Despite all our conversations about magic, she still sounds amazed by it all.

"Normally," I tell her. "But you're muggle born." I begin to explain, probably for the hundredth time. "So someone will come to your house and explain to your parents."

"Does it make a difference, being muggle born?" She asks. I hesitate. Some of the kids there may be prejudiced against her because she's muggle born. There have started to be a few disappearances of muggles recently. They say that there's a powerful wizard behind it. My mum told me about it, but she wouldn't say anything else. It's probably nothing to worry about, but if he has supporters then their kids will probably hold the same beliefs. She also can't be in Slytherin because she's muggle born, but she's not cunning anyway. Even if she weren't muggle born then I could never see her in Slytherin.

"No, it doesn't make any difference." What harm can a small white lie do? It'd only make her worry more, and the odds are, she won't even be affected by those people anyway. If they do try to bully her, I think I've studied the theory of enough spells to be able to get them to back off anyway.

"Good." She says, relaxing slightly. It's a good thing I didn't quite tell her the truth. She had been worrying about it anyway. Now she won't be as anxious about going to Hogwarts.

"You've got loads of magic." I add. "I saw that, all the time I was watching you..." I trail off as I see her attention turn elsewhere. She stretches out on the ground so that she is lying on her back and staring up at the leafy canopy overhead. I smile slightly. She seems so content.

"How are things at home?" She asks me. My smile vanishes from my face. We've not talked that much about my parents in the last few months, but she keeps asking and I keep trying to change the subject. I don't want to talk about them. Lily is the one person I can truly be me with and I don't want her tainting memories of our time together with talking of home.

"Fine." I say quickly, hoping that she doesn't intrude further.

"They're not arguing any more?" She doesn't look across at me when she asks this. I decide to trust her a bit more.

"Oh yes, they're arguing." I tell her whilst absent mindedly picking up some leaves off the ground near me and start tearing them apart, as if taking my anger for my parents out on the leaves.

"Doesn't your dad like magic?" Would any muggle if they knew? They just get jealous of us, my dad, Petunia.

"He doesn't like anything much." I reply dully.

"Severus?" Lily asks. A smile crease of a smile comes across my face. Lily sounds exactly like a 5 year old when they're asking a parent for something.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about the dementors again." Why does she want to know about the dementors? Again. She always seems to want to know more about them. I don't know why, they're one of the vilest creatures in the world. And it's not like Lily will ever go to Azkaban.

"What d'you want to know about them for?"

"If I ever use magic outside of school-" But I cut her off here.

"They wouldn't give you to the dementors for that!" I nearly laugh at the thought of it. Did she really think that wizarding law was that harsh? "Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too-" I am about to end the sentence with good, when Petunia stumbles out from behind a tree. Was she listening to our whole conversation?

"Tuney!" Lily sounds surprised, but there's a welcoming tone in her voice. I jump up to my feet angrily. How dare she accuse me of spying on her when I first told Lily that she was a witch when she's now spying on us now?

"Who's spying now?" I shout, annoyed that my time with Lily has ended so abruptly. I wonder how many of these conversations she's listened in on. She pauses for a moment, as if stunned that we saw her.

"What is that you're wearing anyway?" She sneers at me, pointing towards my chest. I ignore her. It's not my fault my dad doesn't earn much money so most of the clothes I get are second hand. "Your mum's blouse?" She says with a mirthless laugh.

Crack! A large branch suddenly falls from the tree above Petunia and she stumbles back from the impact and tears fall down her face. It was definitely accidental magic and I think it was me. I thought I had got my magic under control. The last time I did accidental magic must be over 6 months ago when I crumbled that wall when I was getting beaten up.

"Tuney!" Lily calls, but it's too late and Petunia has already turned and run off. In seconds she's out of sight. "Did you make that happen?" She turns on me, her green eyes blazing angrily.

"No." I lie, I can pretend it was just pure coincidence. Lily would never forgive me if she thinks that I did it on purpose. I didn't, but she may think that. I need to calm Lily down. She has lots of magic and if she gets any more upset then she might end up attacking me. I didn't mean to hurt Petunia, I was just so angry. I was lucky not to have seriously hurt her.

"You did! You did! Your hurt her!" She says, sounding more and more upset as she steps back away from me.

"No-no I didn't." I protest, but Lily isn't convinced and all I can do is stand and watch as she races off into the thicket where Petunia ran off.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Thank you for all your reviews, I can't believe I've almost reached 100 reviews!_**

 _ **D**_ _ **isclaimer: I am not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 11**

"Lily!" I call the next day, seeing the familiar cascade of red hair falling down her back from a long way down the corridor. I see her turn back and for a moment our eyes meet and I stare deep into her green eyes. "Please." I say, but she breaks eye contact and walks off. I quickly run after her, pushing through the other people in the corridor, but by the time I reach the turning at the end, her distinctive ginger hair is nowhere in sight.

She must still think that I deliberately sent the branch onto Petunia. I did do it, I know that. I wasn't in control though. My emotions took control of me. Normally I have control of my magic. I can't let something like that happen again. It could seriously hurt someone, I was lucky that Petunia was fine.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Lily asks me near the end of lunch after I have finally found her and managed to get her to talk to me. I decide the best thing to do is tell the truth. Maybe she'll understand that I didn't mean to. She might forgive me then.

"Lily, listen please. I didn't mean to. It was accidental magic." I tell her. "It happens to all untrained wizards and witches."

"You said you didn't though." She says accusingly, her eyes starting to glaze over like tears are about to fall from her eyes.

"I lied." I admit, her cheeks burn an angry red that matches her hair and she turns to storm off. "Please, hear me out. Lily, please." I beg. She spins back round to face me again.

"Fine." She says, folding her arms across her chest angrily.

"I didn't mean to. I only lied because I know that you have even less control of your magic than me and I didn't want to make you upset and angry so you did something similar and someone got seriously hurt. Petunia was lucky as she was." She starts to look less angry now.

"You still shouldn't have lied." She tells me. "I just..." She trails off. "I need some space, I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" I nod quickly.

"Thank you, I'm really sorry Lily." I tell her. She turns around again just as the bell goes signalling the end of lunch. My stomach rumbles slightly and I realise I spent so long trying to find Lily that I never ate my lunch. I take an apple out of my bag and munch on it quickly as I walk to my next lesson.

At least Lily's talking to me again though. I've liked having her company these last few months. I never realised how lonely I was before I talked to Lily. I don't know what I really did with my time before. Lily makes everything better. She always makes me laugh and is so inquisitive about magic. By the time we go to Hogwarts, I wouldn't be surprised if she knew as much as any other first year going there.

"Promise that you'll never hurt Tuney again." She says to me the next day. I nod quickly. I've hated every second of Lily being mad with me.

"I never meant to. It was an accident." I add quickly. "I thought I had my magic under control, but..." I trail off. "I should have it under control now."

"Good." She smiles.

"Is her shoulder okay?" I ask, seeing that she still doesn't seem quite back to normal.

"It was still sore this morning and there's a huge bruise on it, but other than that, she's fine." Lily tells me. "Now what were talking about yesterday? Didn't you mention something called Azkaban?" She asks.

"Yeah. It's the wizard prison. You won't go there for something as small as accidental magic though." I tell her. "It's for really bad people. The worst criminals don't just get locked up for life though."

"What happens to them?" She asks me with fascination written all over her face.

"The ministry let the dementors kiss them." I reveal. Her face fills with confusion so I elaborate. "It's a lot worse than it sounds, trust me. A dementor's kiss is what we call it when a dementor pulls its hood down." I explain.

"What's underneath?" She breaths, entranced.

"No one knows." I tell her. "Once the hood is removed the dementor sucks out the soul of its victim out." Lily goes pale and gasps in shock.

"Do they die?" She asks. I shake my head.

"Some things are worse than death. After the kiss, the person is left as an empty shell. The soul is what makes someone them. They don't feel anything happy. They turn mad and can't think coherent thoughts."

"What happens then?" She asks me, her eyes still wide with horror of what I have told her.

"They're thrown in Azkaban until they die. They spend the rest of their days, sitting in misery and never knowing who they really are."

"That's awful. The law is so harsh." She says. I shrug.

"The law is hard but it is the law. **[Cookies to anyone who got the reference]** " I tell her.

"No one could ever deserve that."

"Some wizards and witches go bad, really bad. They want to completely eradicate muggles and torture them for fun. Do they really deserve their soul when it's so dark?" I ask her. She shrugs.

"Maybe. No one is all bad." Lily argues. "Surely, and what if someone innocent has their soul sucked out?"

"I dunno. Same as the death penalty in America I guess. You can't give someone's soul back like you can't bring someone back from the dead. I don't think it's ever happened though. You can't be convicted unless the jury's convinced to no doubt that you're innocent."

"No one would know that they're innocent though if they were set up though." Lily insists.

"That's just the way it is." I tell her. "I didn't make the law."


	12. Chapter 12

_**I know this update is a bit early, but I'm going to a Dr Who con (cookies to any Whovians reading) so I won't have time tomorrow. Sorry for all the long time lapses that there are at the moment, but the main focus of the story isn't pre Hogwarts so I'm just doing snippets. It's not going to be much longer before Hogwarts, the journey to Hogwarts will be chapter 16. I did originally say that there would be about 30 chapters of them at Hogwarts, but it probably will end up being longer than that. Once again, I cannot say thank you enough for all your reviews, I don't have time to reply to them individually, but they mean so much to me. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 12**

 **4 months later**

"It's depressing to think that in just a month we'll be going back to school." Lily smiles, gazing up at the sky, her wavy hair spanned out on the grass beneath her head like a halo. She looks so content laying beside me.

"At least this time next year we'll be buying all our Hogwarts stuff." I remind her. "And your parents will know." She sighs slightly.

"Tuney's still upset about that, and she's right you know." She tells me.

"Right about what? You being a freak?" I ask. "Because that's a lie, don't ever believe that. Magic doesn't make you a freak. It just makes you, us, all of us, different. It's a good thing."

"No, I wasn't talking about that. She thinks that when my parents find out that I'm a witch they'll fawn over me and I'll be their favourite." I roll over in the grass and takes Lily's hand.

"Maybe, but that's not your fault." I tell her. I can tell the closer it gets to her 11th birthday, the more anxious she gets. It's still over 5 months away. I hope everything works out okay with her family with her being a witch. She used to be really close with Petunia, but now... I only really see them walking to school together. Not now obviously, because it's the summer and we still have a month left of holidays until we go back to school in September, but last term.

It's the last chance I'll get to see Lily until September. Her parents are taking her and Petunia on holiday to France for the last month. I wish I could go to France, I've never even been out of Cokeworth even, except to go to my grandfather's funeral and I had never even met him. That was when I was 5 and dad insisted that both mum and I went with him to the funeral. Those were the days when things were a lot better. He didn't go out drinking. Everything was alright then. My worst fear was telling people about magic by accident.

"It's not your fault." I remind her. "Things will work out. Somehow. They always do." Lily doesn't seemed convinced a sighs quietly.

"So how will we actually get to Hogwarts, by flying carpet?" She asked, trying to show that she wasn't as upset as she is. I laugh slightly.

"No, they were banned about 20 years ago." I tell her. "So noticeable that even muggles would see them, we go to Hogwarts on the train, the Hogwarts Express." She nods.

"It seems a bit weird, going by train like normal people when we have all that magic, couldn't we just get transported by magic?"

"I guess we could use portkeys, but then it'd be unpractical with so many people needing transporting. Train is the easiest way."

"Portkey?" She asks, confused.

"It's an object, anything, that has been enchanted and it transports you to anywhere you want to go." I explain, I still keep forgetting that she's not used to wizarding terminology.

"Don't tell me there's some train station, protected by magic that trains run from so that wizards can get around." Lily asks.

"Don't be ridiculous." I tell her. "There's just a hidden platform between 9 and 10 called platform 9¾ that is used only for the Hogwarts Express at the start and end of each term." Then when both burst out laughing because to a muggle it sounds so stupid.

"And let me guess there's a platform 3¼ that allows wizards to travel to places with high magic population densities." She says sarcastically.

"Actually it's platform 7½ that goes to the wizarding villages."

"Stop teasing me." Lily smiles.

"It's true." I say defensively, rolling over on the grass so that we're facing each other properly.

"Stop it." She said. I roll my eyes.

"Fine don't believe me then." I tell her. "But when we're going to platform 9¾, I'll show you it and then we can go to the right platform, just to prove it." She rolls her eyes at this.

"Okay, I believe you." She laughs, before looking at her watch. "I should go." She says, standing up and brushing the grass off her dress. "I still haven't finished packing and mum says I have to have an early night because we have to get up before dawn to catch the ferry." My smile fades slightly. I had forgotten for a moment that I wasn't going to see her for another month.

"Have fun." I smile to her. I don't know what I'm going to do with the next four weeks. It's not like I have anyone else to chat to. I might try and see if I can earn a bit of money doing some gardening or something. Maybe I could save up enough to exchange it in diagon alley when I go to get my wand and I could buy Lily a present with it. Maybe an owl so that she can write home to her family without having to borrow a school one.

"I'll bring something back for you." She says, her eyes shining with excitement at the thought of going abroad. It's the first time she's going abroad.

"You don't have to." I say.

"I know, I want to though." She smiles. "I'll miss you Sev." I smile at the nickname, I don't think she's ever used it before. She says as a strand of hair falls in front of my eyes. She leans forwards and pushes it back before turning around and running off in the direction of her house.

Great, 4 weeks of boredom lay before me. Maybe I can start reading through some of my mum's old textbooks now. That's what I used to spend most of my time doing, before I told Lily about her being a witch.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Next chapter there will be another long time skip and will be Lily's 11th birthday and a couple of chapters after the Severus and Lily will be going to Hogwarts. I also only have one chapter left to write on the other fanfiction that I am writing which means that I will mainly be focusing on this one so updates will probably be twice a week, but once I start my exams there will be a month (15th May-15th June) where it will be just once a week because I won't have time to write chapters so I will write them ahead of time. Once updates are twice a week there will be new chapters on Saturday still and on Wednesday (probably I'm not 100% sure yet). Once my exams are over I will be writing more fanfictions, but I won't have school so I'll be able to still do two updates a week because this one will probs be my main focus.**_

 ** _Thank you so much for all your reviews once again, please let me know what I can do to improve, I am after all writing this for you guys._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 13**

 **Lily's POV**

 **1 month later**

"Bonjour." Sev smiles at me as I walk through the gate on the first day back at school.

"Just because I went to France for a month, doesn't mean I can speak any French." I laugh as we start walking towards a bench with no one else on so we can sit down and catch up. "I did get you something though." I pull my bag off my back. I unzip the little compartment at the back. I pull out a small metal key ring of the Eiffel Tower and hand it to him. Slowly, he spins it around in his hand and smiles.

"Thanks, it's the closest I'll ever get to seeing it." He smiles, putting it into his pocket carefully. "Did you go up it?" He asks me. I smile as I remember the happy memories of the last month. Going up the Eiffel Tower was definitely the highlight. I could see the whole city from up there. I felt like I was on top of the world. We also went on a boat trip on the River Seine. That was at night though so we saw the whole city lit up. I wish Sev had been there with me. He was the only person that I really missed. Other than Petunia.

Petunia came with us of course. She kept up the pretence that everything was okay in front of our parents, but when we were alone, she was just cold towards me. She still hates me. I miss the times that we used to sit and chat. I miss her. Nothing's the same without her, but there's nothing I can do about it. She wants nothing to do with me. She thinks that I'm a freak.

"Yeah." I tell him. "We should go there someday, when we've finished school and have grown up." He smiles.

"And we could just apparate, no point wasting money on ferry tickets."

"Apparate?" Despite all our conversations, I'm still not familiar with all the wizarding terminology that he uses.

"Sorry," He apologises as the bell goes so we stand up to walk to class. "It's a type of magic where you vanish from one place and appear in another, just like that." It sounds cool, but I bet it's really advanced magic and it has to be controlled to stop muggles from seeing wizards randomly disappear or appear out of nowhere.

"How does it work?" I ask him, but he shrugs. We reach the classroom and he holds the door open from me. "Thanks." I say, walking in. Then I see Sally sitting at her desk. She smiles and waves at me.

"Lily! How was France?" I look back at Severus who is behind me.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you later." He replies, before brushing past me to his seat. I walk over to Sally and sit down on her desk and it creaks slightly.

"Amazing." I tell her. "I missed you though." This bit is a lie, I hadn't given her a thought when I was in France, but it seems mean to say that. Especially when she's been my friend for a lot longer than Sev, but I missed him more than her. I even forgot to get her a mini Eiffel Tower key ring.

"Miss Evans, if you would care to take a seat." I whip around and see that Mr Edwards has walked into the classroom. "I trust that over the summer you haven't forgotten that tables are for writing on, not sitting."

"No sir, sorry." I mutter, feeling myself blushing as the class falls silent and their attention turns to me. I quickly jump off the desk and make my way to my own seat.

As the lesson progresses, I find myself gazing more and more at Sev. His raven black hair has grown longer over the last month. It reaches his shoulders. I think it kind of suits him, but I know some of the other boys will give him a hard time over it. I might mention it to him so he can get it cut before that happens.

"Miss Evans, I asked you a question." I am suddenly jerked back from my thoughts to reality as Mr Edwards looks at me expectantly.

"Sorry?" I ask. "Could you repeat that?" He sighs theatrically, despite knowing that I hadn't been listening the first time. Once I've answered the question, which thankfully I managed to get right, I look at Sev one last time, before pulling my gaze from him so that I can pay attention to the rest of the lesson.

"So, apparate?" I ask Sev when we meet up at break.

"Well, I don't know exactly the magic behind it." He begins smiling at me. "But I know you have to be 17 to get a license but they do lessons at Hogwarts in 6th year that you can choose to do and they run tests throughout the year that you can take depending on when you turn 17." He pauses. "It's quite advanced magic though and you have to be careful of splinching." He sees my confused expression and carries on explaining. "When you apparate you have to be focused on where you want to go, but if your fullest concentration isn't there then part of your body is left behind."

"Sounds painful." I tell him. That does sound really dangerous. I'm not sure I want to learn how to apparate now that I've heard that about it.

"They can put you back together again of course, but it must be pretty painful. That's partly why you have to have a license, so that you know how to do it properly to reduce the chance of it happening."

"Sev?" I ask him. "Can you tell me more about platform 9¾ again?" We didn't have long to talk about it before I went away because I had to leave. He smiles.

"Of course." I really did miss Sev over the last month.


	14. Chapter 14

_**As promised, the second update of the week. It will probably change from week to week whether I update on Wednesdays or Tuesdays depending on my revision schedule though. Once it's the 15th May, I'll be back to weekly updates (and I may not be able to do that much) but exams have to come first. My Saturday update may also be a day or two late this week because I have my Spanish speaking GCSE exam on Friday and a week Monday is my French speaking but I haven't started learning my French one cos I don't want to get it confused with Spanish so I'm going to have to cram learning it into 10 days which means I'll be super busy at the weekend trying to memorise my French. Hopefully, it shouldn't affect when I have time to upload a chapter.**_

 ** _Once again thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing what you guys think. Please continue to share your thoughts on my story._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 14**

 **5 months later**

"Where were you Lily?" I ask, walking towards her as I spot her waiting outside the gates. She didn't turn up to school today. It's her 11th birthday today and I managed to save up enough money to buy her a present. It's only a small cake from the bakers, but it's more than last year. She runs forwards and hugs me.

"A witch, Professor Mcgonagall, came to my house." She tells me as I bring the cake box out of my bag.

"Happy birthday." She takes it and opens it. She smiles as she reads the _Happy Birthday Lily_ written in pink swirly writing.

"Thanks." She closes it as we begin to walk. "It was like Tuney said, they think that I'm amazing and special now. I haven't even done anything. I'm just... me."

"It's not your fault, magic is a gift Lily, if Petunia can't accept that, you can't blame yourself." I tell her.

"They thought that she was completely crazy at first," She starts telling me. "Then she apparated and turned the walls bright yellow to prove that magic is real."

"I bet your parents loved that." I smiled. She laughs.

"Yeah, anyway after that Professor Mcgonagall explained everything properly to my parents and told them about Hogwarts." We turn the corner as we walk, and I realise that we have reached Lily's street. "She took us to Diagon Alley and showed my parents how to exchange muggle money for wizarding money and I got my wand and some other stuff I'll need for Hogwarts next year."

"What's the point of that?" I ask her. "You'll still need your robes and stuff for Hogwarts because you'll have grown by September." She shrugs.

"Probably to familiarise my parents with things so that they can take me during the summer for the rest of my stuff." We stop outside Lily's house. "My parents want to meet you Sev, can you stay for a bit." I nod. My dad probably won't be home until late, like usual, and my mum won't even notice that I'm late home.

"Hello, Severus." Lily's mum smiles as we walk into the hallway.

"Good afternoon Mrs Evans." I reply politely.

"Oh please, call me Belle." She tells me. I nod as Mr Evans walks out of a door.

"Please, come through, we'd like to talk, if that's okay?" He asks me and I nod. I guess it must be really strange finding out that magic is real and your daughter is a witch. It's probably natural that they want to talk to someone who knows about magic. He leads us through the door he just came out of into the living room. I take a seat on one of the low squishy sofas and Lily sits beside me. Mr and Mrs Evans take a seat on the armchairs opposite us.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Mrs Evans – Belle – asks me. I shake my head.

"No thank you." I reply.

"So it's true, all of it. Magic." Mr Evans says eventually. I nod.

"Yes. My mum's a witch, but my dad's a muggle." I tell them. "It makes me a half-blood." I explain to them. "Because neither of you are magic, it makes Lily a muggle born."

"And what about Hogwarts, what sort of stuff do you lean there? Is it just like a normal school, just with different lessons? Will Lily get picked on for being muggle born?" Belle asks.

"There are lots of different branches of magic that we get to study there. In first year we do: transfiguration, potions, charms, herbology, history of magic and defence against the dark arts."

"Dark arts?" Belle echos.

"Defensive jinxes and stuff. A lot of the time students don't use it, but it's good to have and not need than need and not have. There have been several dark wizards rise to power so a wizarding war is always a threat." I tell them, then see their alarmed faces. That probably wasn't the best thing to say. "But it's highly unlikely to happen again. Besides, we have Dumbledore on our side. He's the most powerful wizard of all time. He's the one who brought Grindlewald, the last dark wizard who tried to rise to power, down." I turn back to the subject of their original questions. "And yes it is just like a normal school. We learn things that help us in the wizarding world just like you would learn things to help in the muggle world." I explain to them. They still don't seem satisfied that Lily will be safe though so I add. "Learning defence against the dark arts is just like teaching children what to do if a gunman comes into the school. It's unlikely to ever happen, but if it does they know what to do." Mr Evans nods at this.

"That seems fair enough, and what about if Lily gets bullied for being muggle born?" He asks me.

"It's not really that likely." I tell them. I don't actually know this for certain, but I know that it's mainly just old pure blood families that really believe in wizarding supremacy.

"What about holidays and stuff?" Belle asks me. "How will Lily come home?" I shrug.

"It's your choice. The Hogwarts express runs but some students prefer to go by knight bus for speed, if their homes are connected then floo powder or if they're over 17 and have a license apparition." I realise as soon as I've said it they won't understand most of what I've just said.

"The what bus?" Lily asks.

"Floo powder?" Belle says in equal confusion.

"And what's apparition and why do you need a license for it?" Mr Evans looks at me expectantly. I decide to answer the questions in order.

"The knight bus. You just stick your wand out on the street and it arrives. It uses magic to travel, I've never been on it so I don't know much more about it, but apparently it's not for those who get travel sick." Mr Evans looks completely mistified by this. "Floo powder is a powder that you get and if your fireplace is connected up to the floo network then you can shout the address of another fireplace that is connected up as you step into the fire and you end up in that fire place."

"Don't you get burnt?" Belle asks me, concern in her voice.

"Magic." Lily replies. I smile at her and she grins back. "And apparition is when you disappear from one place and appear in another by using magic and concentrating on it."

"I see you and Severus have talked a lot." Belle smiles.

"Yes, she wanted to know everything I know about magic." I tell them, then I spot the clock on the wall and realise that I've been here for nearly half an hour. "I should go, my mum'll be getting worried." Or there's a chance that my dad is home early and I get another beating.

"Of course," Mr Evans says. "Come around again sometime, we want to hear about magic too." He smiles. I stand up and walk out into the hall and see Petunia standing, glowering at me. I realise that no one even mentioned Petunia's name, and I do feel a twinge of empathy towards her. She has been pushed to the side a lot today, maybe things will improve for her as everything sinks in. I give Petunia a small smile as I pass her, but in return she sticks her leg out, too late for me to see and I fall flat on my face.

"Are you okay, Sev?" I stand up and see Lily in the doorway, holding her hand out to help me up.

"I'm fine." I reply, accepting her help. Lily turns to Petunia accusingly.

"Did you trip him?" Her eyes narrow in anger.

"No." I say quickly, standing in front of her. "I'm just clumsy and tripped over the air, it's a talent I have." Lily laughs a little, but still doesn't look convinced. I don't really know why I'm lying for Petunia. I guess I understand what it's like to have a bad day.


	15. Chapter 15

**_Woo, I do actually have time to update today! My exam went surprisingly well yesterday, but I've still got a tonne more until they're over. Thank you to everyone who has left a review, I love hearing what you guys say. The next update will probably be out on Tuesday/Wednesday._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 15**

 **6 months later**

Rat-a-tat-tat! I leap down the stairs, two at a time, to reach the door in my hurry, I don't see my dad walking down the hall and jump straight into him as I come down. I'm so excited, I'm going to Diagon Alley to get my school stuff with the Evans' today. Both of us only really need potions ingredients and robes, and a wand for me, it'll be really fun. He glares at me.

"I'll deal with you when you get back." Fear curdles in my gut as he opens the front door to show the Evanses, minus Petunia, standing smiling at us. Dad puts his hand on my shoulder, to them it must just look like a father lovingly holding his son's shoulder as he says goodbye for the day, but he's digging in and I know that he's telling me that if I don't behave then I will get extra lashes later. "It's so good of you to take Severus." He says, putting on the face he uses in public.

"It's nothing." Henry, Mr Evans, smiles.

"I'll see you later Severus." Dad says, removing his hand from my shoulder, so that I can step outside and join the Evanses.

"See you." I say, keeping up the pretence of a loving father son relationship.

"Hey, Sev." Lily smiles at me.

"Hi," I reply as the door closes behind me and we start walking back to the Evans' car.

"This is so exciting, what wand do you think you'll get?" Lily asks me. I shrug in reply before adding.

"It's supposed to be the wand who chooses the wizard, so I have no idea, I'll just have to wait and see."

"Only a month to go until Hogwarts now." Henry says to us. "Nervous?" I shrug slightly.

"A little, but I bet it's going to be great." I reply. Anywhere has to be better than this dump. My dad can't reach me at Hogwarts either. I only have to go back home during the summer holidays. 6 long weeks of hell before back to school. Easter and Christmas I can stay at Hogwarts for. Some may think it's lonely staying at school over Christmas, but it's better than the alternative. I can't wait until I'm old enough to leave home and get my own place. I'll never have to see my dad again.

"I'll be with you in just a moment." A short woman says to us later as we walk into Madam Malkin's robes for all occasions and the bell on the door jingles, then she turns back to the other people in the shop. Three teenage girls. The youngest looks like she's about to start fifth or sixth year at Hogwarts. The oldest is standing to the side, as if she was just there to take them around Diagon Alley. The middle one looks like she's going to go into her last year at Hogwarts. They all have a similar posture and figures. I think they're probably sisters.

"What robes is it you need?" Belle asks Lily, looking at the list of stuff we need.

"How do you not know what they need?" The oldest one turns to Lily's parents, in shock. "It hasn't changed in the last 50 years."

"We're muggles." Henry explained to her. The woman turns her nose up at them in disgust.

"Ugh, should've known what that smell was, mudblood and muggle." She turns to her sisters who have just finished paying. "Come along, Cissy, Dromeda." And with that, the youngest marches out of the shop with her. The middle sister picks up her bags quickly and rushes out after them, shooting us an apologetic look. Belle and Henry looked confused at the word 'mudblood', but Madam Malkin quickly apologises and starts flicking her wand at long rolls of black material and they start to form robes around us.

"What did she mean by 'mudblood'?" Henry asks me as we walk out of the shop a little later, Lily and I both clutching bags stuffed full of robes and Hogwarts uniform. I pause and think carefully about the answer before I give it to them.

"Some members of the magical community think that they are better off than others, and look down on muggle borns because of it. That word means dirty blood and people use it as an insult towards people who are muggle born. In the wizarding world, it is considered a worse insult than swearing and saying it at Hogwarts has very serious consequences." I tell them. Belle looks slightly worried, but Lily takes her hand.

"I'll be fine mum, Sev will look after me, you know that." I nod reassuringly at them and Belle looks a little less concerned.

"Is that an ice-cream parlour?" Henry points to Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour. "Let's have a snack there." We push through the crowds of Diagon Alley towards the tables and chairs outside the shop.

"What would you like Severus dear?" Mrs Evans asks me. I shake my head. I don't have much money and from the price list I can see that they aren't exactly cheap. "Are you sure?" She asks me. "You seem awfully skinny, it's on us."

"Thank you," I say, before scanning the menu for the smallest, cheapest ice-cream available. "Could I have a vanilla sundae?" I ask.

"Of course," Belle smiles at me. "Lily?"

"Triple chocolate sundae with extra sprinkles and sauce please." Lily says, still gazing at the menu.

"We'll get them, why don't you two go and grab a table outside?" Henry tells us. We walk out again and sit down on the nearest free table that seats four that we see.

"Only a month to go now." Lily smiles at me. "I'm so excited, but so nervous."

"You'll be fine, you've got loads of magic, I've told you before." I say just as Henry and Belle come back, both of them holding two sundaes each. Belle places the smallest of them in front of me and then puts a napkin and long spoon next to the sundae.

"Thank you." I smile politely. I don't think I've ever eaten something that looks so good. Lily digs straight into hers, taking a huge spoonful of ice-cream and sauce. She poises her spoon to take another huge spoonful when she stops and her face grows pale.

"Brain-freeze." She finally explains a couple of seconds later. Henry laughs at her.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so greedy should've eaten it more slowly." He tells her, tucking a strand of hair out of her eyes. He's so gentle and kind with her, I wish my dad was more like him. My dad would never even buy me ice-cream, let alone take me and a friend out shopping in London for the day.

"Where's the wand shop then?" Lily asks me when her mum finishes the last spoonful of her last ice-cream.

"Ollivander's." I tell her, wiping any traces of ice-cream or sauce away with my napkin. "I think I saw it when we were walking down here.

"Let's get going, Petunia will be wondering where we've got to." Belle says. I realise that it's the first time all day that anyone's mentioned Petunia. I wonder where she is, probably at a relative or friend's house. We all get up and wander down Diagon Alley, looking for the sign for Ollivander's. I find it and point, to show the others, and as we walk in the door a small bell tinkles quietly.

It's not long before the four of us are walking into the Leaky Cauldron again. Lily and I both clutching more bags with potions ingredients inside. Inside our pockets are our brand new wands. Lily's is made of willow with a core of unicorn hair and is 10¼ inches long. Mine is 9½ inches and oak wood with phoenix hair.

"Only a month until we can learn how to use them." Lily smiles as we walk out of the Leaky Cauldron back into the muggle world.


	16. Chapter 16

_**I am so sorry for not updating on Tuesday/ Wednesday, it was because my maths tutor had to come on Wednesday instead of Monday and on Tuesday the revision session I went to at school ran over by half an hour which meant the time I had to update went down the drain. I should be able to update on Tuesday/ Wednesday this week though.**_

 _ **Most of the dialogue of this chapter is from Snape's Memories, but like before it was necessary to include this chapter into the story. This next part will be the main bulk of the story, but I won't be focusing on the first three years of Hogwarts so there will continue to be some time skips but this is because I intend most of the story to stray from canon and this part is just establishing Sev and Lily's relationship which is important for the part when I start to stray from canon.**_

 ** _Once again, thank you so much for all your reviews, and please let me know what you think of this chapter._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Part 2 - Hogwarts**

 **Chapter 16**

 **1 month later**

"Come along Severus, I don't have all day." Mum says to me, picking up the pace slightly as we approach the barrier between platform 9 and 10. I start speed walking to keep up with her considerably longer legs than me. I take a deep breath as we reach the barrier and walk through it. I know that it's the right barrier and I won't hit, but it doesn't stop me worrying slightly just before we're going to hit it, but we never do. The world goes black, for a millisecond and then we are standing on a different platform. There's a steaming red train nearby and I stare up at the huge sign that says 9 ¾ then out of the corner of my eye I see the flaming red hair of Lily. She's standing with Petunia, a little way off from their parents. Mum pulls me away from directly in front of the barrier as I gaze around in awe.

"I'm sorry Tuney, I'm sorry." I strain to listen to their conversation. "Listen." Lily takes Petunia's hand,but Petunia tries to pull away. "Maybe once I'm there, I'll be able to go to Professor Dumbledore and persuade him to change his mind." So they're still arguing. It would never work though. Petunia's a muggle, Hogwarts is for wizards and witches, she'd never be allowed.

"I don't want to go." Snarls Petunia angrily, before pulling her hand out of her sister's. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle, to be a-a..." She stops, her eyes flitting to the rest of the platform where there are all sorts of oddities, well oddities for the muggle world, happening. "You think I want to be a-a freak?" I can't see Lily's expression properly from here, but I know that she'll be hurt.

"You have everything you need?" I am pulled from Lily and Petunia's conversation as mum looks down at me expectantly. I nod quickly. "Good." She smiles slightly before bending down and hugging me. "I'll see you next summer then Severus." I nod.

"Bye mum."

"Don't write too often." She whispers in my ear. "Tobias won't like the owls, but write tomorrow and tell me what house you're in." I nod.

"I'll miss you mum." I tell her. I will, it's true. I've never stayed away from home before. I can't wait though. Anything's got to be better than living at home. Mum kisses me softly on the head before walking back through the barrier. I turn back to Petunia and Lily but they have moved back to where their parents are standing. I walk over to them as Lily's parents give her a hug each before she gets on the train.

"Lily!" I call, and she turns around.

"Severus." She says, acting slightly colder than usual. She takes my suitcase for me and lifts it up.

"You go and get a compartment." I tell her as she waves at her parents one last time. "I want to get out of these." I gesture towards my muggle clothes. She nods and picks up her case, walking down the train. I head in the other direction, in search of some toilets. I find them just as the train jolts into movement.

I am soon changed and hurrying back down the train, peering in each compartment door until I see Lily in one, sitting, her face practically to the window as we speed through the countryside. There are a few boys, all in muggle clothes still that look like they're being rowdy and mucking about in there as well. I open the door, and they hardly notice me as I walk in and sit opposite Lily. She looks at me and smiles, only for a second though, before she is looking out of the window again. Even from the brief look she gave me, I could tell that she had been crying. There were silvery tear trails running down her cheeks.

"I don't want to talk to you." She tells me. Her voice sounds like she's trying to stop herself from bursting into tears again.

"Why not?" I ask her. I thought that something was up when I asked her to get us a compartment earlier, but I thought that that was just nerves. Has it got something to do with her conversation with Petunia maybe?

"Tuney hates me." She whispers quietly, still gazing out of the window, but in her reflection I can see that her eyes are glazed over and she's not really looking at the scenery. "Cos we saw that letter from Dumbledore." Oh, that. A couple of weeks ago I was round Lily's house and we sneaked into Petunia's room. We found a letter from Dumbledore to Petunia because she had written to him asking him if she could go to Hogwarts.

"So what?" I ask her. Surely that still doesn't change anything between us? Petunia would hate Lily regardless of whether we saw that letter or not. She thinks magic is freaky. She turns away from the window to glare at me.

"So she's my sister."

"So, she's only a..." I stop quickly realising that saying that probably wouldn't make Lily feel any better, but she doesn't appear to have heard me. "But we're going." I remind her excitedly. We've been waiting so long for this. We're finally off to Hogwarts. "This is it, we're off to Hogwarts." She nods, wiping the corners of her eyes, but there's a ghost of a smile on her face. "You'd better be in Slytherin." I say to her, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't because she was muggle born.

"Slytherin?" She asks me. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell her about the houses. Oops. I can tell her on the way though.

"Who wants to be in Slytherin?" I turn my head quickly and see one of the boys in the compartment staring at me. He has glasses and messy black hair with an air of confidence surrounding him. You'd have thought that on your first day at Hogwarts you'd tidy your hair up a bit. "I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He laughs, arrogantly, turning to the boy on the seat opposite him. An instantaneous feeling of loathing runs for this boy runs through me. Who is he to judge me for wanting to be in Slytherin? The other boy didn't laugh with him though.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin." He tells the other boy. Maybe this other boy won't be so bad though. He's certainly stunned the first boy though.

"Blimey." The shocked first boy says. "And I thought you seemed alright." He's clearly one of those prejudiced people that think that Slytherin is all evil. The second boy just grins though.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition." He says before asking. "Where are you heading, if you got the choice?"

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart." The other boy says, while lifting an imaginary sword. "Like my dad." I try to hold back a snigger. Of course this boy wants to be Gryffindor. I should've guessed. "What?" He turns to me, aggressively.

"Well if you'd rather be brawny than brainy." I tell him and he looks outraged.

"Where are you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" The second boy asks, as the first boy roars with laughter. I feel myself flush slightly. How dare he? I turn back to Lily, ignoring the boys but she's also glaring at the boys in hatred.

"Come on Severus, let's find another compartment." She says, standing up. I follow suit and pick up my case.

"Ohhh." The boys both laugh, imitating Lily's voice. As I pass the first boy, he tries to trip me up, but I see just in time. How childish and pathetic he is. "See you Snivellus." He laughs as I slam the compartment doors slam behind me and Lily.


	17. Chapter 17

**_I am literally so traumatised at the moment. I watched Infinity War yesterday, I'm not giving away spoilers but if you're going to see it (which I highly recommend) TAKE A BOX OF TISSUES, wait no that won't be enough. Take 10 to be on the safe side. Honestly I think it's probably the best Marvel film so far but it's like a year til part 2. Has anyone got a TARDIS I can borrow so that I can watch it straight away?_**

 ** _Anyways, my little fangirling moment over now. Thank you for all your reviews, I really appreciate them._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 17**

"What were those boys talking about?" Lily asks me once we've settled into another compartment. "Slytherin and Gryffindor?"

"They're houses." I tell her. "There are four and you get sorted based on your personality. Gryffindor are were the brave go and Slytherin is for the ambitious."

"Why did you want to be in Slytherin?" She asks me curiously. "I mean I assume you want to be there. You wanted me to be there."

"It's the house my mum was in." I tell her. "You couldn't be in Slytherin anyway, I realised when I said it."

"Why not? How do you know?" She asks, looking out of the window, this time though there are no longer tears in her eyes.

"Some stupid rule." I tell her. "The houses were named after the four founders of Hogwarts and based on their personalities but Salazar Slytherin believed in blood purity and wouldn't let any muggle borns in his house. No muggle born has ever been in Slytherin." I explain.

"I could be the first." She smiles, I just shrug though. Even if she wasn't muggle born, Lily would never fit into Slytherin. "What about the other two houses?" She asks me.

"Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw." I tell her. "Ravenclaw values intelligence and creativity. Hufflepuff is supposed to be for loyal people but lots of people say it's for the duffers, those that don't fit in anywhere, I don't think that's true though." She nods.

"I want to be Ravenclaw." She tells me.

"I thought you would." I smile. "Maybe I'll get in too and we'll be in the same house."

"But I thought you wanted to be Slytherin." She says.

"I wouldn't mind Ravenclaw." I tell her. "If we're both in Ravenclaw then we'll have all our lessons together and the same common room."

"It would be nice." She smiles.

"Come on." The Hogwarts express has finally pulled into Hogsmeade station and we're climbing off the train. I pull Lily along through the crush of people with my spare hand towards the voice that is calling for the first years. "Hurry up." I call excitedly.

"I'm trying," She mutters. "You're so impatient." But I can tell from her voice that she's just as excited as I am to be here. We're led to a small group of boats on a lake.

"4 to a boat." A large man with a booming voice tells us. In the moonlight he looks pretty scary. He's really big, not as big as a giant, but still massive and he has a wild, raggedy beard. I hold my hand out for Lily to take as she steps into the boat and she talks it. Her hand is warm and clammy on my cold one. She must be nervous. I quickly hop on after her and sit beside her as two more boys climb in after us. They're the two from earlier. Lily and I both look away and stare across the lake as the boats begin to move across the lake.

"Hiya Snivellus." The one with dishevelled hair mocks. I ignore him and Lily takes my hand and squeezes it gently. I stare down into the lake, looking out our reflection. I thought that Hogwarts would be different. I thought that here I would finally fit in, but these boys are ruining all that.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" The second boy jeers. Lily whips her head round in anger.

"If you don't shut up, you won't have a tongue in a minute." She attacked back savagely.

"I was just having a joke." He replied.

"They're supposed to be funny." Lily narrows her eyes in anger and no one speaks for the rest of the journey. When we reach the castle Lily takes a gasp of excitement at the magnificent view and even the two boys look mildly impressed by it.

"Ladies first." The untidy haired boy said to Lily holding his hand out to help her off as the boat comes to a stop. She raises her eyebrow at the sudden change of tone and blatantly ignores the hand, stepping off the boat on her own. I start to climb off after her but a hand pushes against my back so I tumble over the side. Just before I am about to hit the water, I manage to pull my wand out and I silently scream Wingardium Leviosa, pointing the wand at myself. I shoot up in the air, much to the boys' surprise. I lift the spell slowly and float down to the path where Lily is standing.

"That was awesome." She smiles at me and we walk up the path together, leaving the two boys gaping at me. I guess all that theory on spells that I did before Hogwarts did come in handy. At least they're leaving me alone, for now.

"Black, Sirius." A stern witch says a few minutes later when we're lining up for the sorting. The first couple of people have already been sorted. I watch as the one of the boys from earlier push past me to get to the front of the line. He puts the hat on which pauses for about 5 seconds before pronouncing:

"GRYFFINDOR!" A loud round of applause and cheers come from the Gryffindor table as he takes off the sorting hat and swaggers over to it. He's grinning as he sits down on an empty bench. I don't pay attention to the next few names until Mcgonagall calls out.

"Evans, Lily." I watch as Lily, who's standing just in front of me, walks forwards nervously. I watch anxiously as Mcgonagall places the sorting hat on her head. Not even a second after it touches her head it screams.

"GRYFFINDOR." I can't help but let out a small groan of disappointment. I should've known that Lily would be placed in Gryffindor. I doubt I'll be put in Gryffindor too. She hands the hat back to Mcgonagall and walks slowly over to the cheering Gryffindors, but as she goes, gazes back at me with a sad smile. I watch as Sirius Black shuffles down the bench slightly to make room for her, but she recognises him from the train and turns her back on him with a look of sheer disgust on her face.

"Potter, James." The line has over halved by this point as I see the first boy from earlier walk up. The hat barely touches his head before crying:

"GRYFFINDOR!" James grins broadly, takes the hat off and sits in between Sirius and a small podgy boy that was called just before himself.

"Snape, Severus." Mcgonagall calls a few minutes later. My heart starts to pound as I walk up to the sorting hat. As I turn to face the great hall, I see there are only about a dozen people left to be sorted as the hat is placed on my head.

" _Hmm, where to put you." I nearly jump out of my skin as I hear the hat talking to me. "Bright mind, very bright. But I'm not sure there is a lot of ambition in you as well."_

"Gryffindor." I plead silently. I never wanted to be Gryffindor, but that's where Lily is.

" _Gryffindor? I'm not so sure, you won't fit in there. No, you'll do much better in_ SLYTHERIN!" The last word is shouted so the whole hall can hear it and I gloomily pass Mcgonagall the hat. I move across to the opposite side of the hall to the Gryffindor table where the Slytherin table is cheering. An older blonde haired boy that has a gleaming prefect badge on his chest pats me as I sit down. I gaze across the hall at Lily who looks just as upset as me before turning to listen as the next person is being sorted.


	18. Chapter 18

_**The next few chapters are going to be the first term of Hogwarts. I'm focusing more on near the start of term and Christmas so there will be a few time jumps once more. After it's got to Christmas the plan is that I'll do a few chapters with bits of Severus and Lily throughout the rest of 1st year so there'll be time jumps again.**_

 _ **Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing from you guys.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 18**

"Welcome to Slytherin." The prefect who I am sitting next to says to us once the sorting is over and food has appeared on our plates. "I am Lucius Malfoy, a prefect in 6th year." He introduces himself to all the new Slytherins as we tuck into the food in front of us. I am starving from the journey. I only had a small sandwich. Lily did buy some chocolate frogs at lunchtime and offered me a couple, but I felt bad, her parents did buy me that ice-cream sundae in Diagon Alley, I can't keep taking things off her. Lucius turns to me. "I can't help but wonder, you look very similar to Eileen Prince, one of my distant relatives. I have an old tapestry in my house showing all my relatives. Most pure-blood families are related you know." I nod.

"She's my mum," I tell him. "But she married a muggle." Lucius wrinkles his nose up in disgust at this.

"Well I hope that you have better sense than to meddle with non-magic people." Lucius says. "We need to keep our blood lines pure." He looks at me seriously, then sees my expression and backtracks quickly. "Of course, you can't help that you're related to a muggle, but you see what I mean. What's your dad like?" He asks me. I shrug.

"Rude." I'm not going to even try defending my dad. He's abusive to me. I'll fit in better in Slytherin this way as well if they all know what I think of my muggle father. "I couldn't wait to come to Hogwarts to get away from him." Lucius gives me a satisfied smile and then turns to talk to someone on the other side of him.

"So what lesson are you looking forwards to the most then?" I turn and start to join in the conversation with the other first years.

"Potions." A girl with blonde hair says, her eyes gleaming. "I have a really annoying younger cousin who's always bugging me to play with him, I expect he'll stop if I tell him I can make a potion that will make his fingers fall off." The other first years laugh and I smile slightly.

"Why does it matter that you have to be able to make the potion if you're only gonna tell him?" I point out. The girl looks at me and smiles with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Because then if he doesn't stop annoying me I can make it and slip it in his pumpkin juice."

"Fair enough." I say before eating a forkful of roast potato.

"What's your name anyway, I'm Regina Bulstrode, you are?" She asks me.

"Severus," I tell her. "Severus Snape."

"Sounds very snake-like." She laughs. "Perfect for a Slytherin." The others around me laugh and I soon join in.

"Very funny." I smirk.

 **Lily Evans' POV**

"I guess your friend, Snivellus made it into the snake house after all, Evans." I ignore the arrogant voice coming across the table from James Potter, as I now know he's called. He's been sitting with Black making rude comments for the whole meal.

"What's he on about now?" The girl sitting next to me, Mary, I think she said her name was.

"He's just being rude." I tell her. I'm glad not everyone in Gryffindor is as rude as Potter and Black. Mary seems quite nice and the boy on the other side of me, Remus, I think, was polite to me when I said hi to him after he was sorted. "There's another boy in our year who lives in the same town as me so we know each other and sat together on the train, but they overheard him saying he wanted to be in Slytherin and were just horrible to him."

"Oh come on Evans, you make it sound like we're the bullies." Black said, listening on our conversation.

"Well maybe that's because you are." I snarl back.

"Oh come on, everyone knows Slytherins are evil, face it." Black replied, narrowing his eyes at me. I ignore him though and carry on talking to Mary.

"It must be nice having someone here that you already know." She says wistfully to me. "Even if you haven't ended up in the same house." I nod.

"Yeah, he was the one who first realised that I had magic and told me. I'm muggle born you see." I tell her. Her lips widen into a smile.

"So am I." She reveals. "I was so surprised when I found out about magic, I thought it was all a joke."

"I know right," I laugh. "Tuney and I thought that Sev was crazy when he told me about magic."

"Tuney?" Mary asks. Then the scene of us arguing at the train station runs through my head and I have to turn away so Mary doesn't see the tears brimming in my eyes. I pour myself another goblet of pumpkin juice and take a sip before answering.

"She's my sister. She's older than me, but she's muggle." I explain. Mary nods.

"I don't have any siblings, I wish I did though. I used to get so lonely sometimes."

"Having a sister isn't always easy." I tell her, shrugging. "We have had some fun times though."

"Excuse me." I turn and see it's the boy sitting next to me. I look at him properly for the first time and see a scar across his face and he looks peaky and tired.

"Yeah?" I ask him.

"Could you pass me that jug of pumpkin juice please?" He asks me. I nod and hand it to him.

"How did you get that scar?" I ask curiously. It does look quite bad. I wonder why it can't be healed by magic.

"Oh..." He trails off, thrown off by my question. "It was an accident... when I was little."

"Must have been quite some accident." I smile. I've never seen a scar that bad before. He smiles slightly and nods.

"Lily right?" He asks. I nod. "Nice to meet you Lily."

"First year this way." An older girl with brown hair pulled into a bun says once the feast and Dumbledore's speech is over. "I will take you to the common room." Mary and I stand up together and join the gaggle of first year Gryffindors huddling behind her and an older boy. They begin to lead us out the hall and I glance over to the Slytherin table as I go. Sev seems to be chatting with the other Slytherin first years and looks happy. I'm still kind of sad that we're not in the same house, hopefully when we get our timetables tomorrow, we'll still have some lessons together.

"My name's Rhysand, and this is Ophelia." The older boy introduces the two older students that are leading us.

"I am head girl and Rhys is the other 7th year prefect in Gryffindor. There are also four more Gryffindor prefects, two in 6th year and two in 5th year." Ophelia tells us. "The head boy is Alec, who is in Ravenclaw."

"You can come to any of the Gryffindor prefects if something is bothering you, however small it seems, we can help you if you don't want to talk to a teacher." Rhys smiles at us. "For now though, we'll lead the way to the common room. Each house has their own common room. Ours is in a tower, suitably called the Gryffindor Tower. The common room also leads to the dormitories." As we start to walk up a staircase, it suddenly jolts and starts to move. I cling onto the hand rail in alarm,

"Oh don't worry about this." Ophelia smiles, seeing our fright. "Most of the staircases move, it can just be a bit of an inconvenience if you're late to lesson." In a couple of minutes we have reach a picture of a woman in a pink dress. "This is the Fat Lady." Ophelia says to us before smiling at her. "Butterbeer."

"Of course. Welcome dearies." She says, before the portrait moves aside to reveal a small passageway.

"For anyone who didn't catch that the password is butterbeer." Rhys tells us, glaring at Potter and Black who aren't paying attention and standing chatting. "The password changes every few weeks, but you will be informed of what the new password is. If you forget the password, then you have to wait outside until another student who does know the password comes by."

Then Ophelia and Rhys lead the way into the common room, a large room with armchairs and tables dotted around. There are only a couple of students other than us in here. I guess everyone's tired and wants to unpack. The students that are here are sitting on armchairs by the fire, playing some sort of card game. It looks a bit like snap, but the every once in a while the cards seem to explode. It seems despite everything that Sev has told me about the wizarding world, I have a lot to learn. I can't wait to start lessons tomorrow.


	19. Chapter 19

_**I was super busy yesterday and Tuesday so this update's a day late, but better late than never. I won't be able to do two updates a week after I've updated as usual on Saturday so it'll be back to updates every Saturdays because my exams start Tuesday (woop-de-doo NOT). My exams only last four weeks (including half term) so after that it'll be back to two updates a week, possibly more because once exams are over I'm done with school until sixth form in September.**_

 _ **Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, and please let me know what I can do to improve.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 19**

"Hey Lily." I smile, walking past the Gryffindor table. She whips her head around and smiles back.

"Wait Sev." I stop in my tracks to see what she wants.

"Come on Severus, what do you want with the Gryffindors?" I turn and see Regina, the girl I chatted to last night, sitting at the Slytherin table, staring at me in disgust.

"One sec." I call back.

"You okay?" She asks and I nod. The other Slytherins seem cool. I'm more worried about Lily, with Black and Potter both being in Gryffindor.

"You, how's it with Black and Potter?" I ask concerned, but Lily just snorts.

"They're pathetic. I've just looked at the timetables though and we still have pretty much all our lessons together. They've put Gryffindor and Slytherin together." A smile comes over my face.

"Awesome, I gotta go now but I guess I'll be seeing you lesson one." I say and I'm about to go back to the Slytherin table when two boys walk in front of me, blocking my path.

"What are you doing here, Sinvellus?" Potter leers at me. I roll my eyes.

"Talking to my friend, but that would be a difficult concept for you to understand considering you have none." I retort back.

"Get back with the other snakes, where you belong. No one likes you here, not even your precious little Evans." Black smirks.

"Well if you'd get out of my way I would." I say, trying to push past them, but they won't move.

"Just leave it James, Sirius." I turn and see a pale boy sitting opposite Lily looking at them. "He hasn't done anything."

"We were just having a laugh." Black said, grinning at the boy.

"Just look in the mirror then." I tell him as he finally budges so I can get past. "Oh wait, you're so ugly it would crack." I hear a small giggle from Lily and the girl she's sitting next to as both Black and Potter give me outraged glares as I go back to the Slytherin table.

"What were you doing with them?" Regina asks as I start piling bacon onto my plate.

"There's someone from my town that I know who was sorted into Gryffindor. We're quite close so I was just seeing how she was when two idiots who tried to shove me off the boats last night came over.

"Ugh, I hate Gryffindor." Regina tells me, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure your friend is fine, but most of them... my older brother nearly got expelled because of them once. He finished Hogwarts last year, but when he was in 5th year, one of them attacked him near the lake, so he shoved them in self defence, and they fell in the lake and almost died."

"That's so bad." I say. "What happened?"

"The Gryffindor couldn't swim and almost drowned, but then the giant squid lifted him out of the lake spluttering. Of course all the Gryffindor's mates started saying that my brother shoved him for no reason. Would've been kicked out if the Gryffindor hadn't been heard laughing about it in the corridor the next day. He just ended up with detention for shoving him, but the Gryffindor only ended up getting some lines to do when he was the one who started it." She tells me. I roll my eyes.

"They're so arrogant, and we've got lessons with Gryffindor." An expression of annoyance comes over her face.

"You're kidding me?" I shake my head.

"Lily told me, she's the one I'm friends with. She's alright though, but Black and Potter, the two boys I told you about, are just bullies."

"Who's bullying you?" I turn and see the prefect from last night, Lucius standing behind me.

"Oh-I... it's nothing." I say quickly, I know what happens to snitches.

"Make sure you get them back when no one's looking so you don't get detention." Lucius smirks, before handing us each a timetable and walking off. Regina looks down at it.

"Double potions with the Gryffindors lesson one, maybe you can get your own back then." She tells me.

"Yeah, maybe." I reply, looking up from the timetable and staring across the hall at where Lily is chatting to the girl next to her.

"Welcome to first year potions." Slughorn smiles at us half an hour later as all the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins line up outside his classroom, in the dungeons. Us Slytherins already know him because he's our head of house and he introduced himself last night in the common room, but the Gryffindors only saw him at the feast last night and breakfast this morning. "When you go in, get into groups of four and then find a table to sit at." He says, stepping aside to let us in through the doorway. I am one of the first in, so I stand and wait for Lily, but Regina calls me.

"Severus, come sit with us." She says. I shake my head.

"I'm waiting for Lily, you can join us though." I offer.

"Fine." She says, rolling her eyes as Lily finally enters the classroom with the girl she was talking to at breakfast.

"Hey Sev," Lily smiles. "This is Mary, she's joining us." I smile politely and nod to Mary.

"Well that works well, Regina's joining us." I tell her and we put our bags down and sit at one of the few remaining tables. "Regina, this is Lily and Mary." I introduce them.

"Nice to meet you." Regina smiles.

"Settle down, settle down." Slughorn says, walking to the front. "Today we're not going to be doing practical." Here there is a large groan from the class. I guess a lot of people were excited to start brewing potions. "We will begin brewing potions next week, but before then, you need to perfect the art of shredding, crushing, cutting and dicing various potions ingredients. Slughorn waves his wand in suddenly there's a variety of potions ingredients with knives and mortar and pestles. "Today, you can just practise and experiment with what you think you need to do with each one and next lesson, I will show you the proper method." Slughorn says just as the classroom door opens and four boys rush in, panting. It takes me a moment to realise two of them are Black and Potter.

"Sorry sir," One of the other two boys says. "We got lost."

"That's quite alright." Slughorn says, gesturing for them to sit at the last remaining table. "I say, Sirius Black and James Potter."

"Yes sir?" They say, trying to sound innocent.

"I know your family Sirius, very old, I was quite surprised when you weren't put in Slytherin with me. There's never been a Black in Gryffindor."

"Always a first time for everything sir." He grins with arrogance before sitting down.

"And James, son of Fleamont Potter?" Slughorn asks. James nods. "Marvelous invention Sleakeazy's hair potion, I expect you'll take after him and be a genius at potions." James looks taken aback by this.

"Well – I er – well I don't know sir. I've never really taken an interest in my father's business." James says to him.

"So modest, just like your father was." Slughorn beamed. I stop listening at that point though because there is a small squeal from Lily's friend, Mary, as a putrid smelling slime thing erupts from a shrivelled looking mushroom, landing all over us. I turn and see that she had been trying to cut it in half with a sharp silver knife. Lily starts blinking quickly, in an attempt to get it out of her eyes. Regina starts trying to get the gunk from her hair while Mary turns bright red.

"Sorry." She mutters as I pull my wand out.

"Evanesco." I say quietly and all the slimey stuff on and around us disappears.

"Thanks Sev." Lily smiles. "You're so good at magic already."


	20. Chapter 20

_**Thank you all for your reviews, I love hearing from you guys and I'm really upset that I'm going to have to stop updating twice a week now, but exams have to come first so the next update will be next Saturday.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 20**

 **1 month later**

"Hey Snivellus!" I ignore the call from behind me. I don't even need to listen to the voice of the person who's calling to know who it is. Only two people in the entire school call me that. Black and Potter. Even if they weren't the only people, the arrogance in the voice would give it away immediately. I feel someone yanking my shoulder back. "Hey, we were talking to you, Snivellus, didn't your mum ever teach you it's rude to ignore someone."

"Didn't yours ever tell you it's rude to call people Snivellus?" I retort angrily. Why do Black and Potter never leave me alone? Now they've settled into Hogwarts properly, they've only got worse. They've formed some sort of gang with two other boys: Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Lupin's a pale, scarred boy that seems to be out of school really frequently. A few days into the term, he disappeared, no one seemed to know where he had gone. He turned up a couple of days later, looking more tired and worn out than ever. He said his mum had been ill so he'd been allowed to visit her over the weekend, but that doesn't explain why he missed most lessons on Monday as well. Anyway, Pettigrew is a small, plump boy who just agrees with everything Potter and Black says. They call themselves 'The Marauders'. They're so pathetic.

Pain shoots through my ribs as Black gives me a hard kick and I double up in pain. I reach for my wand in my robes, but Potter grabs my hand to stop me. "I don't think so. It's cowardly to do magic when we're fighting with our fists."

"What like it's so brave to gang up four on one?" I say, nodding to where Lupin and Pettigrew are standing behind him. "I thought you're in Gryffindor, aren't they supposed to be brave." Instead of getting a reply, he smashes his fist into my nose and I hear a crunch as it breaks. I can't help but cry out in pain.

"Come on Peter," Black laughs. "You give him a hit." Pettigrew looks delighted that they has remembered he is here and Potter pins my arms behind my back in a painful lock as Pettigrew punches me in the stomach. I bite my tongue so as not to give them the satisfaction of me crying out in pain. Then I hear a shout from behind me.

"Get off him!" I don't recognise the voice, but it's definitely female. I try to turn and see them pointing their wand at Black. They don't mutter a word, but there's a flash of white and Black calls out in pain. Next she turns to Potter. As the jinx hits him in the face, his face starts to swell up and he tries to stifle his cry of agony. He lets go of my arms and I quickly dart of his reach. "Never do that again!" As she comes closer I realise I recognise her as Lucius Malfoy's girlfriend, a Slytherin in her 4th year at Hogwarts. I'm not sure what her name is. The four boys scramble off as we reach each other.

"Severus isn't it?" She asks and I nod. "I'm Narcissa, everyone calls me Cissy though."

"Thanks," I say. "They just appeared out of nowhere. I would've hexed them, but one of them grabbed my arms."

"I saw, sorry I took so long approaching, I couldn't tell if you were Slytherin or not from where I was standing so I had to use a disillsionment charm to get closer and then I needed to do a surprise attack. Then she points her wand at my nose. "Episkey." My broken, bleeding nose suddenly goes very hot and then cold. A moment later it felt back to normal.

"Thanks." I say as we walk across the grounds back up to the castle.

"It's nothing. Gryffindors always gang up and attack the first years. Try to go around in a small group, it makes the odds of them attacking you smaller." I nod. "I'd advise not reporting it to a teacher, they always side with the Gryffindors."

"I've only been here a month and I'd already figured that out." I reply grimly.

"I can tell a couple of older Slytherins and they could get them back for you if you want." She offers.

"Thanks. Nothing really bad, I don't want to stoop to their level, just enough to teach them a lesson."

"I'll make sure it gets done then." She smiles as we reach the steps to go down to the dungeons. We are just about to go down when there's a shout from down the corridor.

"Sev!" I turn and see Lily sprinting down the corridor. "Potter and Black just came back to the common room, laughing about something they did to you, are you okay?" She looks at me properly and sees the blood on my face. She looks shocked. "I knew they were rude towards you, but I never thought they would physically attack you. Remus seemed really nice whenever I spoke to him."

"I'm fine, Cissy saw and helped me." I explain.

"You need to report this." Lily says, grabbing my arm, but I shake my head.

"They're not going to expel 4 first years for one incident, what they'll get some house points taken away and some detentions and then they'll be worse than ever. I'm fine, I'll get back at them at some point."

"Sev, I'm worried for you."

"Lily, please I'm fine. I should get back to my common room though, I'll see you tomorrow."

"You sure?" She asks me. She does sound really concerned, but I just nod.

"Positive."

"I'll make sure he gets back safely." Cissy reassures her.

"Stay away from Potter and Black though." I warn Lily. "They're evil." She nods.

"I'm not stupid. Though I doubt they'd be stupid enough to attack me in the common room with everyone there." She turns away and goes back down the corridor and Cissy and I go back to the common room. After Cissy has muttered the password to get in, we walk through the passageway revealed after the password is said.

My eyes take a couple of seconds to adjust to the dim green glow that is the lighting of the Slytherin common room. I'm still not used to how dark the common room is. It think it's because we're in the dungeons and the lake is right next to us which is where the eerie glow comes from. Lucius turns and sees Cissy and walks over to us, giving her a peck on the cheek.

"I was looking for you." Then he notices me and looks startled at the blood on my face.

"Who was it?" He asks me.

"Gryffindors in my year, Black, Potter, Pettigrew and Lupin." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.

"Of course. I'm surprised Black's family hasn't disowned him. They're a very old traditional family, pure-blood, and they can't be happy with him being in Gryffindor. He's got a younger brother I think, he'd better not turn out like this one.


	21. Chapter 21

**_I've survived the first week of exams. Woohoo. Only 20 more to go (woop-de-do). Anyways, thank you all for reading this, I've just checked and I have 69 followers! Even if you don't review, there are still loads of you that bother to read my awful writing so thank you. It means a lot to me and please do let me know what I can do to improve._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 21**

 **A couple of weeks later**

"You have a go Sev." Lily laughs, darting back as a large branch swings her way. I snort with laughter.

"What and get knocked out, no thanks?" I smile as she tries to lean in and touch the tree trunk, and barely dodges an attacking branch. There's some new craze to try and touch the trunk of this tree called a 'Whomping Willow' which does exactly what it's called. It's an incredibly violent tree that has branches which swing around and hit anyone that tried to come close to it.

"Oh come on," Lily says, stepping back slightly, panting. "It's just a bit of fun." I roll my eyes.

"Fine." I say, pulling my wand out of my pocket and waving it. "Arresto Momentum." The branches of the tree suddenly slow down and grinning at Lily I saunter in and touch the trunk. I wait for a couple of seconds, grinning at her outraged expression before walking back.

"Cheat!" She laughs. "How come you can do that anyway, the only spell that we've done in charms so far is the levitation one." I shrug.

"I did a lot of theory work on charms and spells before Hogwarts so I already knew the basics of it. Now that I can do magic, I've practised all the spells and it turns out if you study the theory of them enough, then the practise of them comes naturally." I tell her.

"You think you're so big, Snivellus." I spin around angrily at the voice of Black. "Just because you know a couple of spells." I quickly point my wand and cast a spell silently.

"Petrificus totalus." I think and Black becomes rigid and falls over onto his face. Potter glowers at me from behind him and mutters the only spell that he is capable of performing.

"Wingardium Leviosa." He points his wand at me and I start floating upwards. I don't bother taking the spell off me, it's easier to aim at the Marauders from up here anyway.

"Stupefy." I say, and Potter's eyes go blank and he collapses to the floor unconscious, causing his spell on me to break and I also fall to the floor, but I manage not to embarrass myself and land on my feet. "Anyone else gonna try attack me?" I ask, staring down at Lupin and Pettigrew. They don't look me in the eye and try to pick both Potter and Black up off the ground and drag them off.

"Sev, you should probably take those spells off them." Lily says, watching as they struggle.

"They deserve it." I mutter, hatred running through me.

"Be the better person." Lily says. "They'll only try to get you back later." I sigh slightly, Lily doesn't really seem to get it, even if I do nothing they'll attack me. I may as well get my revenge seeing as they're going to try and make my life a misery either way. I lift up my wand and point it at Potter.

"Renervate." I mutter and he comes around quickly. I then point my wand at Black and mutter the counter curse so he can walk. "Let's go." I say to Lily and she follows me up to the castle. "Why do they always get away with everything?" I rant as we go. "They've only ever got a measly detention."

"I know," Lily sympathises. "But I don't want you to get into trouble either." Hogwarts really isn't living up to the expectations of my imagination. I hoped that Lily and I would be in the same house and I'd finally be somewhere that I fitted in, but it's just not turning out that way. Potter and Black are just ruining everything. I hate them. I am so deep in my thoughts that I'm not paying attention to where I am going and I accidentally walk into Slughorn.

"Oof. Sorry professor." I say quickly, but he smiles broadly.

"Not to worry not to worry, Severus." He says, then sees Lily. "Oh and the charming Miss Lily Evans. I've just finished looking at the potions for your class and I must say the one you did was absolutely magnificent. Did I detect a hint of jasmine in it?" He asks us and we nod.

"Jasmine is used by some people as it scent soothes them to sleep and as it wouldn't counter act any of the other ingredients we thought it may improve the potion." I explain and he nods.

"Genius, absolutely genius. I say, I'm having one of my little dinner parties tonight, just a few other students and I would be delighted if you two would join us." He says. I nearly groan loudly. I'd heard about his 'little dinner parties'. Apparently most of the people there have some famous relation that he wants to know about. Lucius Malfoy has to go to them and when he comes back he's always complaining about how he nearly dies of boredom every time.

"We'd be honoured sir." Lily says, smiling politely.

"Wonderful, I'll see you in my office at 6 o'clock sharp then." Slughorn says before walking off.

"Why'd you have to agree?" I turn to Lily once he's out of earshot. "Everyone who goes says that they're boring."

"It'd be rude not to go." She insists. "Besides, it could be fun."

"And James Potter and Sirius Black might want to be my best friend." I mutter darkly but Lily doesn't bother replying.


	22. Chapter 22

_**I've just checked and this story has 181 reviews! I didn't think I'd get that many reviews over the entire story, so thank you so much. Could we try and make it to 200 on this chapter. if we do, over half term I'll find time to write a Snily one shot for you guys. I really appreciate all your feedback and comments.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 22**

 **A couple of weeks before the Christmas holidays**

"Everyone who is staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays, please put your name down on this piece of parchment, it will be passed around throughout the lesson." Mcgonagall tells us at the start of a transfiguration lesson. She hands it to the first person who just passes it on. I watch as it heads up and down the rows and almost groan in disgust as I see Black write his name down. Great, I thought that I'd be able to escape them during the holidays, but obviously not. Then to my delight I see Potter nudge him, whisper something and he does what looks suspiciously like a scribble, crossing out his name.

When it reaches Lily and I, she is about to pass it on. "Wait." I whisper, so Mcgonagall doesn't hear as she drones on about something to the rest of the class.

"You're not going home?" Lily asks me. I shake my head as I scrawl my name underneath the last name on the parchment and scan over the names of people saying. There are only a couple, none are in Slytherin but I am happy to see that Black did cross his name out. I wonder what Potter said to make him change his mind. I pass the parchment on and start listening to the lesson once more.

"How come you're staying for Christmas?" Lily asks me as we walk out of transfiguration and outside the castle towards the greenhouses for herbology, not noticing the marauders behind her.

"Isn't it obvious Evans," Potter laughs arrogantly. "Even his family doesn't want him." I ignore them. "What's up Snivellus, can't argue cos it's true?" Then someone unexpected stops him from taunting me further.

"Leave it James." The voice sounds strangely like Black's voice. Since when did he care so much about Potter taunting me.

"What's got your wand in a twist?" James laughs, not really taking Black seriously.

"James, just leave it." I hear Lupin tell him. I'm still suspicious about Lupin. He always seems to be ill, and it always seems to be once a month for a couple of days and he comes back looking tired. There's something weird about him, and I want to find out what it is.

"Muffliato." I mutter later in herbology. It was one of the spells I was working on before I came to Hogwarts. It's one of the more simple ones that I came up with, but it's very effective for stopping people from listening to mine and Lily's conversation. It's the only one out of the ones that I made up back when I was living in Cokeworth that I've managed to perfect, but I am still working on the others.

"Sorry," Lily apologises. "I didn't see them. Why are you staying for Christmas?" I shrug, not really wanting to tell her. "You can tell me, I won't tell anyone." She promises.

"Things aren't easy at home." I tell her, she tries to press me further, but I just shake my head. I don't want to make a big deal out of it all. Despite the marauders, life here had been so much easier with my dad not being here. I wonder what things are like for mum now. I'm scared that he might hit her more often now though because I'm not there.

 **Start of the Christmas holidays**

"Bye Lily," I say smiling at her as she clambers onto one of the carriages that will take her to Hogsmeade station and the Hogwarts Express. She grins down at me as she hauls Mary's suitcase up with her.

"I'll miss you Sev." She says.

"Tell Petunia I say Merry Christmas." I feel like I ought to be polite towards her. She probably has had a rough time this year, with their parents finding out that Lily's a witch. It's not Petunia's fault that she was born a muggle and Lily wasn't.

"I will, and don't unwrap your present until Christmas day." She warns.

"You too." Lily doesn't have an owl and it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to send a school owl with her present because the muggles may suspect something if they see owls coming at weird times of day. As it is, I make sure that when I write to my mum, I use the same owl from the owlery every time and send letters in the evening so it won't seem as suspicious having an owl flying at night.

"I'll see you in a few weeks." She smiles as the carriage pulls away. I stand and wave until her carriage is out of sight before I head back up to the castle. I don't really know what I'm going to do with my time over Christmas. I guess I can practise some more advanced magic and try to tackle some of the problems that I'm having with the spells that I'm trying to invent.

"Ah, Severus, not going away for Christmas?" I hear the familiar boom of Slughorn's voice just as I'm walking down the stairs to the dungeons to go back to the common room.

"No sir." I reply as I look down and seeing him walking up the stairs, in the opposite direction to me.

"Well, I was thinking about holding another little dinner party on Christmas Eve, just those of the usual bunch that are here over Christmas." He tells me and I have to restrain myself from groaning loudly. "Would you be interested in coming?" I have to think fast to get out of it.

"Erm, actually professor, my family have this kind of tradition on Christmas Eve where we exchange books and spend the rest of the evening reading them but I'd still like to follow the tradition." I lie, thinking on my feet about an Icelandic tradition I have heard of before. "I think the tradition comes from Iceland, but my family has always done it." Slughorn's smile fades slightly.

"Not to worry, not to worry m'boy." He says. "I don't suppose Miss Evans is also staying here over the Christmas break?" He asks me. I shake my head before continuing on. That was a close one. Since Lily agreed to go to that dinner thing with Slughorn in October, he's invited us to one about one a fortnight. People really weren't kidding when they were complaining about how boring it is. Slughorn just sits there and fawns over those people who have famous relatives.


	23. Chapter 23

**_Thank you for all your reviews, please let me know what you think of this chapter._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 23**

 **Christmas day**

Sleepily, I wake up and rub the sleep away from my eyes, yawning. I squint slightly in the pale December morning sunlight, but my eyes soon adjust and I notice a small pile of presents at the bottom of my bed. Grinning with excitement, I dive down to open them. They must have been delivered by the house elves in the night. I don't have to worry about not waking the rest of my dormitory because I'm the only first year Slytherin staying, so I am alone. I kind of like it. It's certainly more peaceful when I'm trying to sleep than normal.

The first present I unwrap has a small note attached. I don't need to read the name at the bottom to know who it's from. I recognise the neat, swirly handwriting that belongs to my mum. I eagerly look to see what is inside and see a book on advanced charms and hexes. I grin as I flick through the pages and scan over the neat printed writing, stopping to look at the colourful illustrations that accompany them. I can't wait to practise them. I take a moment to read the note properly. My dad didn't even bother to put his name next to my mum's.

The next present I open is from Regina. It's only a small pack of chocolate frogs, but I appreciate it all the same. I wish I had bothered to get her something now. All I gave was a card that I hurriedly scribbled and sent to her by owl last night. I turn to the next gift which has been carefully wrapped in crinkly gold paper. I open it slowly and a note falls out into my lap. The names on the bottom of the note surprise me slightly. Cissy Black and Lucius Malfoy.

I don't talk to either of them very much. I mean we talk a bit, but it's mainly Cissy checking that I haven't been attacked again. They both seem really nice though. I look at the gift and see that it is a set of really nice feather quills and ink pots. When I examine the ink pots closer, I see that the label on them tells me that the ink will write in whatever colour I desire. I make a mental note to send them both letters thanking them for it later. It can't have been cheap.

I take the last present from my pile. I was saving this one until last. It's the one Lily gave me. I shake it slightly, trying to work out what it is. It feels like a book of some sort. My curiosity gets the better of me and I rip it open to find a book on potions and what effects adding different ingredients to different potions will have. I nearly burst out laughing. I ordered the exact same book from Florish and Blotts for Lily. Who knew we were so predictable?

I quickly flick my wand and all the wrapping paper that was previously strewn all over my bed and floor vanishes and I pack all my presents into my trunk carefully so that I don't leave a mess. I'm a neat freak like that. I'm pretty lucky that most of the other boys I share my dormitory with are quite tidy as well and the only one that isn't, just draws his curtain around his bed so we don't see his stuff dumped on the floor around the bed. Today though, the room is perfectly tidy because I am the only one here.

I dress quickly, checking the time and see that I still have about half an hour to go until breakfast so I grab the book that Lily got me and head down to the common room and sit in one of the squishy armchairs by the warm fire. Normally these armchairs are occupied by the older students who want to keep warm, but today the common room is deserted.

"Coming down to breakfast?" I almost jump out of my skin an hour later as I see Tania, the 7th year prefect for Slytherin, standing in front of me. I had been so engrossed in my book that I hadn't notice the time fly by or that a couple of other Slytherins had come down to the common room. I nod quickly and pull my wand out. I flick it quickly and my book quickly vanishes to my dormitory and I stand up to walk down with the Tania and the two other Slytherins that have stayed for Christmas. I don't know the other two Slytherins, they're third and fourth years and siblings I think. As we walk up to the great hall, they are chatting away to each other happily, leaving Tania and I to try and make conversation with each other.

"Get anything good for Christmas?" I ask as we reach the top of the stairs, out of the dungeons.

"Meh," She tells me. "I got quite a lot of books on advanced magic, mainly to help my with my NEWTs. I did get quite a good supply of sweets though, you?" I shrug.

"I got a couple of books, some sweets and a writing set thing." I tell her.

"Is that it?" She asks quickly, sounding surprised. "Sorry, that probably sounded rude I didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine." I tell her. "My dad's muggle and doesn't really like me or magic so he probably didn't even want my mum to send me something."

"Your dad's a muggle?" Tania asks, looking at me in surprise.

"Yeah, why?" I ask. I knew that some people didn't like muggles and wanted them to all be killed, but no one had really given me much hassle about my dad being muggle. I guess I hadn't really spoken about it though, not since the first night when I told Lucius.

"You shouldn't mention that to anyone." She tells me. "Things are changing outside of Hogwarts Severus, just don't talk about your heritage." Her sudden change in tone surprises me slightly. I hadn't heard a lot about what was happening outside of Hogwarts. Thinking about it, there have been more reports on muggles going missing under suspicious circumstances but I didn't think that much of it.

"What's happening outside of Hogwarts?" I ask as we reach the entrance of the great hall and she stops. She shakes her head.

"It's complicated, but by the time you've finished Hogwarts, things will have changed and you'll need to pick a side Severus, everyone will." Tania's words spin around my head as we enter the great hall. What does she mean? What side? If there's someone out there who's gaining growing support for killing muggles, I will not stand with them. It wouldn't be just muggles, it would go onto muggle borns and that would put Lily in danger. Tania quickly changes the topic of conversation though. "Well if you are struggling with any homework over the holidays, I'm always happy to help." She smiles at me.

"Thanks." I say, going along with her. I need to keep any eye out on things going on in the wizarding world. It's probably nothing. Maybe Tania's parents are supporters of some guy who hates muggles so she thinks that things are bigger than it is. I'm sure it's nothing. At least I hope it is.


	24. Chapter 24

**_This chapter is kind of just a montage of different scenes. A lot of the next chapters will be because the main focus of the story is on later years, but I still want to establish Lily and Severus' relationship in younger years. I only have one more week of exams so after that I will probably be able to update twice a week. Next week's update may be a day late though because I'm spending next Saturday binge watching season 7 of OUAT so I might not have time to update. Thank you for all your reviews, please let me know what you think of this chapter._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 24**

 **A week later**

"Hey Sev," Lily smiles at me, walking over to the Slytherin table at dinner on the first night back after the holidays. I smile back at her. I hadn't had chance to speak to her yet because the people who came back on the train only got back about half an hour ago.

"Shove off mudblood." Someone from further down the table hisses at her. She blushes slightly at this.

"I'll talk later." I mutter and she disappears off to the Gryffindor table. I turn and glare in the direction of the person who called Lily a mudblood, but no one's really paying attention now. I turn back to Regina who is telling a funny story of something that happened over the holidays. I am so engrossed in it that I don't notice Lucius sliding onto the bench next to me until he asks me to pass him a platter of roast potatoes.

"Oh, hi Lucius," I say, handing them over for him. "I got that quill and ink set that you and Cissy sent, it was really nice of you. I really like them." He smiles at me.

"That's quite alright, Cissy's taken quite a liking to you." He says. "How was you're holidays, you haven't had any more issues with Gryffindor have you, I saw that girl come over a couple of minutes ago." I shake my head.

"No, Lily's my friend. She hates the marauders as much as I do." I explain to him, but he doesn't seem to like this. His expression turns somewhat stormy and turns away to talk to someone else.

 **A month later**

"Hey, Snivellus." I don't bother turning as I see the marauders swaggering towards me. Black, Potter and Pettigrew. Lupin's not with them. They say he's ill again. He always seems to be ill. Once a month and always on the full moon. They wouldn't let a werewolf come to Hogwarts though, would they? If they did, it'd be a risk to all the other pupils' lives. Either way, it's suspicious though.

"Hey Snapey, we were talking to you." Black yells at me.

"He wasn't talking to you." I turn and see Lily behind me, standing between me and the marauders. She must have seen me and was trying to catch up with me.

"Need a girl to defend you Snivellus?" Potter sniggers. Lily's face flares up with anger at this and before either Black or Potter can stop her, she has marched over to Potter and slapped him around the face.

"So what if I'm a girl?" She shouted, before turning to walk with me. I see Black going to reach for his wand to attack her from behind whilst Potter is still clutching his scarlet cheek. I pull my wand out.

"Duck." I say to Lily, and instinctively she obeys. "Sectumsempra." I scream in my head. It's one of the spells that I started inventing before Hogwarts and I finally got it to work the other day. It's one that could be used to kill, however used in times like now, with care, it can be very effective. Sectum comes from the Latin, meaning 'having been cut' and semper 'always'. Basically it slashes the skin open wherever I slash my wand toward. The person casting the spell can control how deep the wound is. The catch is though, the wound cannot be healed with magic. The 'sempra' part of the incantation sees to that. It's an incredibly dangerous spell for someone to invent, but I always use it non-verbally so that no one but me knows the incantation and I know how to use it. Maybe if the marauders see what I am capable of, they will lay off a bit. A bit of blood that cannot be healed by magic should do the trick. I only aimed my wand to slice his finger open. It's not life threatening or anything.

Black cries out in pain as blood spurts out of his finger, but Lily and I have already walked away before they can do anything to stop us. "What did you do?" Lily asks me. I can only think of one reply to a question like that.

"What I had to."

 **2 months later**

"Come on Sirius, my parents loved having you last time." I hear Potter saying to Black as they walk down the corridor, just ahead of me They must be walking down to the carriages that will take them to Hogsmeade station and the Hogwarts Express, exactly where I'm heading to say goodbye to Lily for the Easter holidays. "They don't mind you coming for Easter as well."

"My parents got annoyed about Christmas, I should probably go home." He says, sounding slightly disappointed. I decide to have a little fun, seeing as they're always making my life a misery. I quickly cast a disillusionment charm on myself and then point my wand at Black.

"Expulso." I say silently. He is suddenly thrown against the wall and he scrambles up quickly in confusion.

"What the?" Potter says. "What was that?"

"A curse," Black replies grimly as I begin to smile. "I felt something hit me from behind." Let's see how Potter likes the curse of the bogies.

"Mucus ad nauseam." I say, again silently. Of course they will know that it's me doing this, but I don't want to get in trouble. I'm not letting them have any proof that it was me. I hear a cry of surprise as, I presume but I cannot know for certain because Potter faces away from me, his nose starts to run severely. He realises quickly that there is someone behind him and Black, but luckily for me I am invisible to them. He glowers at me.

"I know you're there Snivellus." He says angrily, trying to find a tissue as his nose continues to run. It's pretty disgusting really, but worth it. I decide to do one more thing before leaving them alone.

"Colovaria." This time I say eat twice, the first time pointing my wand at Black, the second time at Potter. They both look at each other in disgust as their hair transforms from black to a bright, lurid green colour. The charm will wear off eventually. In a couple of days. Until then, I guess they have to put up with the humiliation. I grin as I saunter off.


	25. Chapter 25

_**Sorry for updating a day late, I was busy binge watching OUAT, but now that my exams are over, I can start updating twice a week so the next update will probably be Tuesday or Wednesday. Thank you for all of your reviews, I love hearing from you guys, and I love getting feedback from you about what you think. Last chapter I got a flame review, but you know what? That just makes me to write more of this story, I get if people don't like the story because Snily is controversial, but that does not mean that it is okay to flame and they won't stop me from continuing with writing this story.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 25**

 **1 month later**

"Black and Potter are going to do something Severus," Lily says, looking me in the eye. I can see her concern in them. "They're still angry about what happened before the start of Easter." I shrug.

"I can handle them. If they attack me again, Lucius says he'll get some older Slytherins to send them a harsher message." I tell her. Potter and Black were a laughing stock when going home apparently. I probably could've made the charm last longer, but I'm not like them. I didn't do it for the fun of it like they would've. I did it to teach them a lesson, and if they haven't learnt it yet, it's not my problem.

"Why can't you just report it like a normal person?" Lily begs. "I don't understand."

"Lily you're not in Slytherin, you wouldn't understand."

"Then help me." She says. "Sev, help me see what it's like for you. Slytherin is just a house, things can't be all that bad." I pause for a moment to think of an example that she would be able to see.

"You know at the quidditch matches?" She nods her head. "If there's a match against Slytherin, no matter which house is playing, the other 3 houses support it. Why?" She shrugs.

"What's that got to do with it Severus?"

"See!" I say to her. "You don't even know why. It's so engrained in this school that Slytherin is the evil house, why?" She shrugs again.

"I don't see what people not supporting Slytherin at quidditch has got to do with it."

"Because the deepest prejudices always begins with the small things." I tell her.

"Like snide remarks?" She asks, her face paling slightly. Somehow I don't think that she's talking about prejudices against Slytherin. I've noticed, people have started to be ruder towards muggle borns recently.

 **1 month later**

"Urgh I'm so bored." Lily groans, slamming her head into the book.

"What do you want to do then?" I ask her, stretching out on the grass. It's a hot day and exams start fairly soon so we came out by the lake to study.

"I don't know." She says wrinkling her nose up. "I would suggest trying to touch the trunk of the whomping willow, but that's banned now." It is understandable why they've banned us from going near the tree though. Last week Davey Gudgeon was playing by it and almost lost an eye. It's for our own safety.

"I think I heard Regina say that she wanted to practise flying so that she could try out for the quidditch team in September, we could go and practise with her." I suggest. She shrugs.

"I don't really see what the big fuss about getting on the quidditch team is." She says, rolling her eyes. "It's better than sitting here studying though." I stand up and give her my hand and she pulls herself up. I quickly wave my wand and my things vanish back to my dormitory. "Could you do that with my stuff?" She asks me and in a second her books have gone as well.

"Come on." I say and we walk across the ground to the broomstick shed. There's a prefect sitting on the stool inside, looking incredibly bored. I guess sitting in a shed signing people's names off to make sure no broomsticks go missing must be pretty boring.

"Names." She says in a bored tone.

"Lily Evans and Severus Snape." Lily replies quickly and she jots them down.

"Year?" She asks.

"First." I tell her. She jots something else down next to our names.

"Remember you can only fly on the quidditch pitch and don't pull any stupid stunts." She reels off the list of things that she's supposed to tell us. "And if there's an accident one of you must come and get me, immediately." We nod as she stands up and hands us a broomstick each. They're both extremely old with twigs sticking out at every angle, but we have to use these ones because first years aren't allowed to bring their own.

"Hey Sev." Regina swoops down and lands beside Lily and I as we walk onto the quidditch pitch. "We were just about you play catch with a quaffle up there, you two wanna join us." She gestures to a couple of other Slytherins on brooms above us.

"Sure." I smile, mounting my broom and kicking off. Lily and Regina aren't far behind me. I'm not a particularly good flyer, but it's pretty fun when we're just mucking around like this.

 **1 month later**

"At least exams are finally over." Lily sighs as we walk out of the charms classroom after having done our final test.

"Yeah," I agree. "That one wasn't that bad, I was expecting it to be a lot worse."

"Not that it'll really matter because they're not going to let you back next year anyway Snivellus." Potter grins savagely, walking up to us.

"And why's that?" Lily asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow at him.

"Because they have standards here and now they know how disgusting he is they're not going to let him back next year." He laughs at Lily before turning to me. "How often do you even wash your hair to get it that greasy, once a year?" I ignore him and turn around. I wash it every other day, but I've got the sort of hair that becomes greasy really easily.

"Well why would they let you back to Hogwarts next year then, now they know what bullying toe rags you are?" Lily says before the two of us storm off. When the marauders approach us, it's always best to leave as quickly as possible before it escalates.

 **A week later**

"Petrificus Totalus." I mutter, pointing my wand at Potter as he turns the corner away from me. That'll teach him to put frogspawn on my seat in history of magic again. I hear a loud, satisfying thud as he hits the ground and I smirk at him as I walk past. Unfortunately Professor Mcgonagall happened to be walking past me at exactly the wrong moment.

"Mr Snape, reverse that spell immediately." She scowled at me. I decide to try and play innocent.

"What spell professor?" I look up at her, trying not to laugh at the sight of Potter laying still on the floor.

"Would you like me to check what the last spell you cast with your wand was?" She asked. I should've known it wouldn't work. I sigh and pull out the wand and mutter the counter curse. Potter quickly scrambles up and glares at me.

"I'll get you back for that Snivellus." I smirk slightly at this because Professor Mcgonagall isn't done with me yet and hears.

"5 points from Slytherin and detention with me tomorrow evening, 7 o'clock sharp Mr Snape."

"Yes professor." I say, annoyed that I lose points and earned myself a detention but Mcgonagall's next words put a smile on my face. Not that I show it of course or she'd probably dock more points off Slytherin.

"And I expect to see you in my office then too Potter, name calling is not tolerated," Potter opens his mouth of protest but Mcgonagall cuts him off. "Even if you were provoked."

 **The next day**

"Good evening Mr Snape." Mcgonagall says when I arrive at her office for detention. "You'll be doing lines tonight." I groan inside. Lines are so boring. At least it's not anything difficult though and it probably means that Potter will be stuck doing lines too. "The parchment and quill are there." Here she points to a small desk in the corner. "I want you to write out 'I will not hex other students', hopefully that will make you think twice in future."

"How many times?" I ask her, walking over to the desk and sit down.

"One hundred." She tells me curtly and I pick up the quill and begin. It's not long before my wrist is aching so I pause and look around the room. Potter still hasn't arrived and Mcgonagall's nostril is twitching angrily. The door opens just as I pick the quill up once more.

"Sorry I'm late professor." Potter says, panting slightly. "I forgot."

"Mr Snape, how many lines have you done so far?" She asks me.

"32." I reply, looking up.

"Well then, in order to make sure you're not late again on top of your 100 line punishment you will do an extra 32 as a reminder to come on time to detentions." Mcgonagall tells him. He groans slightly but nods. I turn away and smirk to myself slightly before carrying on with the lines.


	26. Chapter 26

**_The next chapter will probably cover the summer holidays and the one after that will probably be quite montagy like previous chapters to get through the second year because as I've said before, the main focus of this story will be the later years. Probably 5th,6th and 7th and then there'll be a bit after Hogwarts. Once again, thank you for all your reviews. Please let me know what you think I can do better. How can I improve my writing?_**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 26**

 **The end of term**

"Remember to write to me Evans." Black laughed as the two of us got into a carriage together. She looks back over her shoulder at him.

"That'd be a waste of ink, you're so thick you probably wouldn't be able to read it." I snigger as I see his outraged face. He clearly can't think of a witty comeback so he, Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew walk off to get on the train further down. "Jerk." Lily muttered as we found a couple of seats.

"You'd only just noticed?" I question, raising my eyebrow at her.

"I'd have to be blind not to notice." She replied. "I don't get why they're so popular." I snort.

"The jerks are always the popular ones. It was the same back when we went to muggle school." I roll my eyes.

"It's going to be so weird going back home and seeing everyone again for a couple of months now that we've been going to Hogwarts for so long." Lily says. "I didn't have much time to see my old friends over Christmas or Easter so it'll be the first proper chance that I get to talk to them. And you'll get to see your parents Sev." She adds brightly. I'm not sure that's a good thing though. I wonder how long it'll take before my dad brings his belt out on me again. At least it's not for long and it'll be nice seeing mum again after so long. I wonder how much of Cokeworth will have changed after almost a year. I don't expect that a lot will have happened. I look up and see that Lily is looking at me expectantly. I must have tuned out at some point while she was talking.

"Sorry?" I ask. She sighs slightly.

"Were you even listening to me?" She huffs.

"Yeah," I reply, but she's still frowning slightly. "I'm just excited about going home." This explantation seems to satisfy her and she repeats the question.

"Do you think Tuney will be talking to me again? I hope so. It's been nearly a year. She was so angry at me when I went back in the holidays." I shrug.

"She seems pretty good at keeping grudges. I wouldn't worry about it Lily, it's not your fault. There's absolutely nothing that you can do about it. You've tried talking to her. You sent her letters and she still didn't respond. Just give it time." I say, trying to comfort her. I don't get why she's so upset about Petunia. Petunia was the one that rejected her: called her a freak, refuses to talk to her. Petunia should be begging for Lily's forgiveness, not the other way round.

"I guess." She sighs.

"Do you want a few games of exploding snap to pass the time?" I ask her, remembering that I put them at the top of my trunk in case we wanted to use them on the journey. Lily nods, grateful for the change of subject.

We spend the rest of the journey home chatting, playing exploding snap and eating chocolate frogs that Lily buys when we're eating lunch. Potter and Black walk in about half an hour before we reach London. Lily and I decide the best thing to do is ignore them. We're probably not allowed to use magic once we've left Hogwarts. Here on the Hogwarts Express, it would be difficult to track the magic back to us, but using magic outside of Hogwarts is an expellable offence and we don't want to risk it.

"We just wanted to say goodbye Snivellus." Black says. I can't help but take the bait. Ignoring Lily's warning glance I turn to them.

"Why, aren't you coming back next year?" I ask. "That'll be nice for everyone not to have to see your ugly face every time they walk into the great hall for breakfast."

"I'd watch it Snivellus, now that you can't use magic you aren't such a big man." Potter smirked at the same time as the compartment door opens.

"Oh hi Black, Potter. I was just sent to tell you that something rather mysterious has happened to your trunks, they seem to have turned green and silver and randomly scream 'Gryffindor sucks' at random." Regina smirks.

"What?" Black splutters.

"You should probably go check it out." Regina tells them, holding the compartment door open for them and they walk out, giving us all dirty looks. When they have gone, Regina closes the door and laughs. "Good riddance to bad rubbish." Then she looks at us and sees my pack of exploding snap out. "Mind if I join you?"

We're just about to pull into the station when Regina suddenly leaps up. "I should go, I need to get my trunk." She mutters quickly before running out.

"I'll help you." Lily tells her, grabbing her own trunk and following.

"NO!" She yells quickly. What's wrong with her? Why does she want to get away from us so suddenly? It's weird. "It's fine, really." Lily shrugs and comes back into the compartment until the train stops properly.

"Come on." I say. "If we hurry, we can miss the crush to get off the train." I get my trunk and we rush out of the compartment to the nearest exit. We make it there just as everyone else is getting out of their own compartments.

"Mum, dad, Tuney!" Lily shouts, spotting her family amongst the crowds as we climb down. She runs over to them and I glance around the platform for my mum. I soon see her lurking in a dark corner, set apart from everyone else.

"Hey mum." I say, walking over to her.

"Severus, it's been so long." She says, bending down to give me a hug. It's only then that I notice. It's pretty noticeable so I don't know why I didn't see it before, but her cheek is swollen and bruised so much that she can barely open one of her eyes. She's sees my expression and looks pained. I can tell she doesn't want me to talk about it. So I don't. Clearly he's still hitting her.

I spot Regina with her family when we are getting into the car. "Hey Regina, why did you rush off so quickly earlier?" I ask whilst my mum is putting my trunk into the boot. She quickly looks up at her parents, but they are busy talking to each other.

"They wouldn't have been happy with my choice in friends." She whispers. "I couldn't let them see me with a mudblood."


	27. Chapter 27

_**I'm not sure if I'll be able to get two updates out this week because I'm gonna be really busy cos I'm on holiday. But I'm super excited because I'm going Harry Potter studios again tomorrow. Anyways, please let me know what you think of this chapter, I love hearing from you guys.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 27**

"Severus, let me take your trunk upstairs for you." Dad offers when I get out of the car, struggling with my trunk into the house.

"It's fine, thanks." I reply quickly. He may be pretending to be civilised, but I'm not blind. I can see what he did to my mum's face. His face changes instantly.

"I said, let me take it." He repeats, his voice turns dangerously quiet. I can see that he's irritated, so I pass it to him quickly, wanting to avoid him turning angry.

"Thanks." I mutter, scuttling into the house.

"How was the year then?" Mum asks me, getting a glass of water for me. "Dinner shouldn't be too long." She adds as my stomach begins to rumble after the long day of travelling.

"It was good. I made loads of new friends, and I tried out a tonne of new spells."

"Severus, we don't talk about magic in this house." I spin and see that my dad is back from taking my trunk upstairs. "I don't want to have to remind you again."

"Yes dad, sorry." I mutter quickly. It doesn't take much to realise that nothing's changed since I left last September.

 **1 week later**

"Don't you find it so strange, being back here?" Lily asks me as she passes me a glass of juice before we walk outside into her garden to lay on a blanket on the grass.

"Not really," I reply, taking a sip of the cold drink which tastes amazing on my parched tongue. It's looking like it's going to be another hot summer. "Hogwarts feels like home to me. I never liked it here."

"Why not?" Lily asks me.

"It's always so boring. When we went to school here, I was always a loner and didn't have anyone to talk to. The same things would just happen day after day. The same teachers would teach us useless facts. The same people would find ways to torment me in the same way. I'd go home and my parents would have the same arguments." I pause, thinking about the fresh bruises on my mum's face and the near beating I got last night for spilling some water. "It doesn't matter now though. We're at Hogwarts all year round except for the summer of course."

"Severus?"

"Yeah?" I ask, looking at her. The angle of the sun is reflecting off her eyes at a perfect angle so it looks like the sun is beaming from her eyes.

"Why do you never talk about your parents?" She asks me.

"How do you mean?"

"Whenever you mention them, you immediately change the topic to try and distract me."

"I-I don't." I reply, though we both know that I'm lying. Lily looks at me, and squeezes my hand.

"You know you can tell me anything." I smile sadly before pulling my hand away.

"My parents argue a lot. My dad doesn't like magic and thinks that it's unnatural. I think the only reason that I'm allowed to go to Hogwarts is because it means he only has to see me for a few weeks a year." I tell her.

"Then he doesn't know what he's missing out on Sev, you're the best friend anyone could ask for." Lily smiles, making me feel immediately better. Until I remember that I will have to go back to my house soon. I don't want to be too late out and risk dad getting angry.

 **Three weeks later**

"Why can your people not use a letter box like any normal person?" Dad rages as a barn owl carrying a thick envelope taps on the window while we're eating breakfast.

"I'll get it." My mum says, standing up and opening the window. The owl hops in onto the window ledge and gives mum's finger a friendly nip. "Thanks." I hear her mutter as she takes the envelope. The owl blinks before turning around and flying back out of the window. "It's your list of extra equipment that you'll need for your second year." She tells me, sliding it to me across the table.

"Thanks." I mutter. Picking it up, I read my name that is carefully written in emerald green ink. I open it and read through it. It's mainly just books and there's a reminder that we're now allowed to take broomsticks with us. I don't really care about that though. I don't understand everyone's obsession with wanting to play quidditch.

"I should still have most of the books, but you've grown over the summer so you'll need some longer robes."

"Can't you just magic them longer, save a bit of money?" Dad snarls at us.

"It doesn't work like that." Mum explains. "It requires spells that are specialised."

 **Four days later**

"It's so kind of you to take Sev with you again." Mum smiles at Belle as they come to pick me up to go to Diagon Alley to get my school robes with Lily.

"It's fine, Lily and Sev get along so well. It's a shame they didn't end up in the same house at Hogwarts." Belle replies. "Well, we'll bring him back once we've got everything." She says and Lily and I begin to walk towards their car.

"Dad said that they can buy me a broomstick so I can try out for the Gryffindor quidditch team in September." Lily grins happily to me. "Are you going try out as well?" I shake my head, winkling my nose.

"I don't mind flying, but I don't want to join the quidditch team so I can easily just borrow one."

"Fair enough. I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts." Lily grins. "It's nice being back here, but it's weird having to lie to everyone about school and stuff. Everything's changed so much since last year.


	28. Chapter 28

_**Sorry this chapter's a bit short, I've been super busy. I'm hoping next chapter will be longer because there will be quite a lot going on. Once again, thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing what you guys think. Please let me know how I can improve my writing.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 28**

 **The first day of term**

"Severus!" I turn in the direction of the familiar voice to see Regina waving at me by the barrier between platform 9 and 10.

"I'll see you next term then," Mum says, giving me one last hug and walks away.

"Hey Regina," I smile, pushing my trolley towards her.

"Good summer?" She asks me and I shrug.

"Meh." I say, reaching her.

"You two go first and we'll follow you in a second," Regina's mum tells us. We lean inconspicuously against the barrier and are soon standing on platform 9¾ near to the familiar scarlet Hogwarts express.

"Can I copy bits of that transfiguration essay we had to write?" Regina asks me as her parents step through onto the platform. I roll my eyes. "Hey, I was busy and it was really difficult."

"It's fine," I sigh.

"We should probably get onto the train, it's not long before it sets off," Regina tells me, staring up at the huge platform clock.

"Yeah," I smile, picking my trunk off my trolley to take onto the train. It feels good to be going home.

 **1 month later**

"Hey, Snivellus, don't you ever wash your hair?" I groan as I hear the voice of Potter behind me.

"Leave me alone," I yell angrily, carrying on walking.

"No need to be so rude Snapey, we were just asking a simple question," Black laughs. Frustrated I turn around, pointing my wand at them. "Stupefy." I mutter and Potter keels over, unconscious.

"You'll pay for the Snivellus," Black snarls.

"Yeah," Pettigrew snickers. Annoyed, I just point my wand at Black.

"Levicorpus," I think and he is hoisted upside down by his ankle. "I doubt that," I mutter, walking off again. Why can't they just leave me alone?

 **A couple of hours later**

"Severus, I heard that you had a run in with some Gryffindors earlier," I look up from the book that I'm reading in the Slytherin common room and see Lucius standing in front of me. I nod.

"They started it as usual," I tell him and he sighs.

"They always do," He takes the book out of my hand. "Look Severus, can you come with me. There's a few of us that are fed up with all this and we want to do something about it. We want you to join us,"

"What do you mean?" I ask him confused.

"Things are changing outside of Hogwarts, for better. Sooner or later there's going to be a war Severus, and people like us will be at the centre of it," He tells me, but I'm still just as confused. "People like the Potter boy, families like the Weasleys, those sort, won't be in power. For too long we've hidden from the muggles, they should be subject to our bidding, not the other way round," He snarls. "Severus, I've seen the marks on your back when you come out of the bathroom, it was a muggle who did that wasn't it?" I nod slowly. I thought I had hidden the scars. Clearly not well enough. Most of what he is saying is still going over my head though.

"It was my dad," Lucius grimaces at this.

"Even your own kin will harm you because of their ignorance. We need to be the ones to eradicate them," He tells me. He wants all muggles to die?

"Not all of them are bad though," I try to reason with him.

"Aren't they?" He asks me, raising one of his eyebrows. "I've heard you and that mudblood girl talking-"

"Don't call her that." I tell him, cutting across him. He sighs slightly, as if a little impatient.

"Fine, the muggle born girl. Even her own sister rejects her now because she has magic. It's not right," He does have a point. Petunia is horrible to Lily and manipulates Lily into thinking that it's her fault. "I know this doesn't make much sense to you. You're only a second year and outside of Hogwarts you're only ever in the muggle world, but we're having a meeting, some of us. We want you to join us," I think he has a point about some muggles, but killing all of them... that seems a bit extreme.

"I don't know," I say. I would do anything to get Potter and his gang to lay off me, but I don't understand how all of this is interlinked.

"Next week there's a visit to Hogsmeade, we were going to meet there, you should come along too," Lucius tells me.

"But I'm only second year," I point out. We're only allowed to go to Hogsmeade in third year,"

"There's a secret passageway. Regina is coming to the meeting as well. She knows where the passageway is, she can show you," Lucius tells me. "The passageway leads to Honeydukes, the sweet shop in Hogsmeade. It should be pretty busy because there'll be a lot of Hogwarts students there, so you shouldn't be called out for being too young, but keep your hoods up in case. We're meeting in the three broomsticks at 11," I decide that I will go. If I don't like what they are saying, I can easily just leave.

"Okay, why not?" I smile at him.


	29. Chapter 29

_**The next couple of chapters will probably be just scenes from throughout 2nd year of Hogwarts. I've realised that I haven't included Lily's POV in a while, should I add a couple of bits from her, or just keep it from Severus' POV? Thank you once again for all your reviews, I don't have time to reply to them individually, but they mean so much to me, so shout out to everyone who's left a review.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 28**

 **The Next weekend**

"Give me a minute, I want to buy some sugar quills. They'll keep me going for hours in history of magic lessons," Regina says to me as we manage to get into the normal section of the shop undetected. I nod.

"Hurry up though, it's not long until we need to be at the Three Broomsticks," I tell her, looking at my battered watch. A couple of minutes later we are walking down the bitterly cold street with the wind cutting into our cheeks.

"A butterbeer will warm us up," Regina says. "Have you ever had butterbeer?" I shake my head.

"My dad hates everything magical so I've never had the chance to try it," I tell her.

"You will love it, trust me," She grins as we reach the door of the Three Broomsticks. We open the door and are immediately hit by a gush of warm air. We step inside quickly, glad to be out of the freezing air and fierce winds.

"Severus, Regina," I hear someone hiss to the side of us. I spin around in the direction of the voice. It's Cissy. I smile as she beckons for us to join her. "We've got a booth near the back. Do you both want a butterbeer?" She asks us. We both nod. "I'll go and get them considering you two aren't supposed to be here," She points us to the booth. "The others are all here already."

We walk over to the booth and the others all shuffle down to make room at the table for us. Looking around, I can see that not everyone goes to Hogwarts, but all the Hogwarts students are Slytherins. I recognise most of the Hogswarts students, but I have no idea who the others are.

"Severus, Regina," Lucius smiles. "We've got some friends from outside of Hogwarts joining us. This is Bellatrix, most people call her Bella though, sister to Cissy," As he says this a glass is slammed down in front of both Regina and I.

"Budge down." Cissy says to me and I shuffle down slightly to make room for her. Lucius points to a dark haired woman whose face bears some resemblance to Cissy's.

"And they are Alecto and Amycus, they're brother and sisters," Lucius says pointing to a couple of people further down the table. "And that's Rabastan," Lucius concludes, pointing to the guy sitting next to him.

"Can we get to business now?" Bella asks as I take a sip of my butterbeer. It's deliciously warm and properly warms me up. Lucius smirks at her impatience but nods. "I still don't understand why you brought the kids along." She mutters, intending us Regina and I to hear. I don't say or do anything, but Regina blushes slightly.

"Severus is incredibly advanced in magic for his age and I think he'd be interested in our views and Regina, though not as advanced with magic, is the same," Lucius tells her. "Besides, what harm can it do to have a couple of youngsters around,"

"What's the news then?" An older Slytherin boy, who I recognise to be Evan Rosier asks.

"The Dark Lord is offering protection," Bella replies. Who's this Dark Lord? Is he one of these fanatics? I turn to Regina to see if she has any idea about what's going on, but her eyes are fixed intently on Bella, listening carefully to what she is saying. "He says in return for our loyalty, he won't stop us from killing muggles or filthy mudbloods." She says grinning. "I for one, intend to give him my full undying loyalty."

"It does seem like a better deal than the ministry are giving us. They want protection for muggles. Why should they be protected, filthy creatures?" Another said, nodding. "It's a good offer."

"What would following him entail?" To my surprise, it is Regina who asks this.

"Following out tasks that he sets you. I expect most of them would be killing his enemies and torturing them for information. His end goal is to become Minister of magic, but of course that will all take time because he needs to build up power." All this is way over my head. I don't want to kill. Sure some muggles should be locked away, but killing all of them isn't the solution, is it?

 **Later that day**

"What did you think of it all then?" Lucius whispers quietly to me as I sit down for dinner in the great hall in the evening. I shrug.

"I don't get why all muggles have to be killed, they're not all bad," I reply. Everything that was said at the meeting had been going round my head all afternoon. I don't know what to think.

"Take your father for example," Lucius tells me. "He beats you doesn't he?" I look down at my plate of food uncomfortably, not wanting to admit it. It would make me seem weak. "He wasn't taught how to abuse you, was he? No one taught him that. Muggles just pick these things up, it's in their nature Severus. They must be killed to protect them from themselves."

"Not all of them are like that though." I aruge.

"If muggles knew about us, do you really think for one second that they wouldn't try to kill us? They'd hunt us and murder us. Put us on display as if we were dogs." I know that I have no argument for this. It's true. They would. Anything that cannot be explained by science is feared by the muggles. "See? We shouldn't have to live in fear of them."

"I guess, but what about muggle borns, it's not their fault that they have muggles for parents." I point out. Bella was speaking about torturing them, but they have magic. Their parents may be muggles, but they have just as much magic as any other witch or wizard. Lily is one of the most talented in our year. Why should they be killed and tortured?

"They have too many attachments to muggles, how many excuses has Lily given to you about why her sister is horrible to her?" He tells me. He has got a point, but I'm still not entirely convinced.


	30. Chapter 30

**_Sorry I didn't update twice this week, on Monday and Tuesday it was 6th form induction day and then on Wednesday it was my birthday so I was super busy. Hopefully, I'll be able to update twice this week. Thank you for all your reviews and please continue to let me know what you think._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 30**

 **2 months later**

"Come on, we're going to be late." I tell Lily, trying to drag her out of the library towards the dungeons for our potions lesson.

"Sorry, this book's really interesting." She replied, quickly putting it down and following me.

"Sorry we're late professor." I say, panting slightly as we rush into the classroom. Slughorn seems slightly irritated that we've interrupted at first, but when he sees that it's me and Lily, he has a broad smile on his face.

"Not to worry, not to worry, just get settled down quickly." He tells us, before turning back to whatever he was talking about before we came in. As Lily and I take our seats I hear Potter and Black sniggering to each other.

"Snape and Evans sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G." Potter whispers to Black quietly. Black grins and Pettigrew laughs loudly. Too loudly. I watch as Slughorn turns to look at him and Black stamps on his foot so that he groans in pain. Slughorn still looks suspicious but carries on.

"Wow, some people are so immature that they think boys and girls can't be friends without wanting a snog." Lily mutters to me, loud enough that the Marauders can hear her, but they just ignore it.

 **2 months later**

"Come on Lily, you can't tell me that it's not suspicious," I argue. "He's always ill once a month on the full moon, what other explanation is there?"

"There's no way that he could be a werewolf, if he was he'd never be allowed to Hogwarts, they have to think of all the other students Sev," Lily replies, rolling her eyes. I know that she thinks I'm being stupid. I know that I'm right though. He always seems to be ill around the full moon, that's not a coincidence. "Besides, he's not always ill. He told me that his mum has this condition that means that she's often at St Mungos and he has permission to visit her."

"On school days?" I question. "It can't be that serious if they keep on releasing her and no one else in the school just randomly gets permission to see their parents during the school term except if something big in the family has happened."

"Just drop it Severus," Lily sighs, before changing the subject. "Anyway, aren't you excited that it's nearly Christmas?" She asks me and I shrug.

"I guess I escape the Marauders for a couple of weeks," I reply.

"Are you not excited about going home?" Lily asks me and I shake my head in reply.

"I'm not going home. I'll have more fun here," I tell her.

 **Christmas day**

"Severus!" I groan internally when I hear the booming voice of Slughorn behind me. "I was hoping to catch you, I'm doing a little dinner party with some of the usual that are staying here over the holidays, I'd be delighted if you could join us." I pause for a moment, trying to think up an excuse, but I can't. I guess I'll just have to face a couple of hours of boredom.

"Of course sir," I reply and he beams.

"I'll see you in my office at 1 o'clock sharp then." He tells me. Maybe it would've been a better idea to go home for Christmas, I wouldn't have to put up with Slughorn fawning over all the rich and well connected students that attend Hogwarts.

 **1 month later**

"We've got so much homework this weekend," Lily moans as we walk up to the great hall for dinner after our last lesson on Friday.

"I know," I agree. "And the workload is only going to get worse as it gets closer to the end of the year." I say. It's only January but we're all feeling the pressure of the end of year exams.

"I know, I swear, they're trying to kill us," Lily jokes. "Do you want to work together in the library after dinner?" She asks me. I nod.

"Yeah, I'll see you after dinner." I say as we reach the Gryffindor table.

"Go back to the rest of the snakes Snivellus," Black snarls at me.

"Leave it Black, he was just arranging where to meet after dinner," Lily replies angrily.

"See you then," I say to Lily before walking off, and I can hear Black saying something sarcastic to Lily as I go.

 **5 months later**

"Argh, I just don't know what to pick," Lily says to me in despair, staring at the form in her hands. "Have you decided yet?" I shrug. We've just been given our option forms for the subjects that we're going to do next year. We have to continue with all the subjects that we do currently, but we've got to pick three subjects to do in addition to those next year.

"I want to do ancient runes," I tell her. "And I think arithmancy would be interesting as well."

"They sound really difficult," Lily tells me. "But they are probably useful. What else?"

"I'm not sure, I might do care of magical creatures, that may come in handy for potions," I reply.

"That's true, but then divination sounds really cool," Lily contemplates.

"Don't," I advise her. "Divination's only useful if you're actually a seer which most people aren't."

"What about muggle studies then?" She asks me and I shrug.

"It'd be a really soft option for you because you're muggle born, so it'd be easy," I tell her. "You wouldn't have to put a lot of work in."

"How useful would it be though?" She asks as I mark down that I want to do arithmancy, ancient runes and care of magical creatures.


	31. Chapter 31

**_I'm really busy at the moment, so I'm going to only update once a week now so I'm only going to update on Saturdays. Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing your thoughts on my story._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 31**

 **2 months later**

"Hey Snivellus," Groaning silently, I turn around to see Black with who must be his parents and a boy who looks only a couple of years younger than Black standing behind him. I turn back around to look for the transfiguration textbook that I'm supposed to be finding.

"Found it," Lily says a couple of minutes later, picking up two identical books off the shelf next to me. She hands one to me.

"Thanks," I reply. "I think we've got all our books now.

"Mum and dad said that we can get ice creams now," Lily tells me as we begin to walk to where her parents are already standing in the queue. There was a long queue so they held our place for us while we got our books.

"I really don't like the riff raff that shop here," I hear a woman say, walking past us. "Mudbloods and muggles shouldn't be allowed her." I turn and see that it is Black's mother.

"I know dear," Her husband replies, glancing distastefully at Lily and her parents. "The scum should be waiting on us." Black behind them glares at them, angrily before smiling at Lily.

"Hey Lily, how have your holidays been?" He's clearly trying to annoy his parents. I have to admit, while I loathe Black, he's got pluck. Lily isn't buying it though.

"Shove off Black," She snarls.

"Sirius, come on," His brother tells him, tugging at his sleeves. "Mother will be angry if she sees you."

"Mother's always angry at me," Black says angrily. I look at him and see the resentment in his eyes. Maybe I judged Black too harshly. He clearly has a hard time at homes. His parents are pure blood manias and the Black family are always put in Slytherin, being the only Gryffindor makes him stand out, though not in a good way clearly. That doesn't mean I forgive him for everything he's done to make my life hell for the past two years though. "What are you staring at, Snivellus?" He says, seeing me staring. All the sympathy washes out of me. No, he has a choice not to be rude to me. I never did anything to him and he knows that I'm not like most Slytherins purely because I'm friends with Lily.

"Sirius Orion Black!" His mum suddenly looks around and see him standing next to Lily. "How dare you talk to scum like that?" His dad grabs his arm and yanks him away.

"You will be punished for this Sirius, we brought you up better than this," His dad snarls at him. He scowls at his dad before turning back to Lily.

"See you in September, Evans." He grinned cheerfully has he was pulled out of sight. His younger brother scurries after them quickly.

 **First day of term**

"Black, Regulus." Mcgonagall calls out and the boy that I saw in Florish and Blotts with Black last month walks up to the sorting hat, sits on the stool and places the hat on. There is a brief pause, of about five seconds before the hat calls out.

"SLYTHERIN." I join in the huge cheers and round of applause that erupts from around me as he smiles, takes the hat off and walks over to the table. He sits down next to me and he smiles at me like he recognises me from over the summer.

"Sorry my brother was so... in the summer," He whispers to me. "He was just trying to annoy our parents as much as possible."

"I'm used to it," I reply as someone is sorted into Ravenclaw. "He's been rude to me ever since we met in the first year on the train journey here."

"How come?" Regulus asks me.

"I said that I wanted to be in Slytherin," I tell him. "And he seemed to find it hilarious."

"He only hates Slytherin because our whole family are Slytherins and he doesn't agree with them on a lot of things, like you saw at Diagon Alley. We're an old family with traditions that he just tramples all over." Regulus tells me. Then we both clap politely as another Slytherin is sorted.

 **2 months later**

"I can't wait to go to Honeyduke's," Lily tells me as we walk down the path to Hogsmeade. It's the first visit of the year, and as third years, we're finally allowed to go. I already snuck out and went last year for the meeting with Lucius, but Lily doesn't know that. "I've heard it's amazing."

"Lily!" A voice from behind us, we turn around to see Lupin behind us. I'm delighted to see that Potter and Black aren't with them. It surprises me slightly. I would've thought that they would be the first third years in line to get into Zonkos.

"Yeah?" She asked him as he jogged up to us. "Mcgonagall asked me to tell you that your detention will be on Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock." Lily groans.

"I'd forgotten about that, thanks Remus," She replied. "How come Potter and Black aren't coming to Hogsmeade?"

"They have their detention today?"

"What happened?" I asked. Lily couldn't have forgotten her homework because the last lot of homework I ended up copying off her.

"Black and Potter tried to hex me so I slapped Black only Mcgonagall came into the common room just as I slapped Black."

"I hope he felt it." I mutter and Lily laughs. To my surprise, Lupin sniggers a little too.

"Oh, I just think that they go too far sometimes. Sirius needed a peg or too taking down." Lupin tells me. He must have seen my confused expression. For a moment, I begin to think that maybe Lupin isn't that bad. I mean, he's never really joined in with Black and Potter when they attack me. He has never stopped them though. He always just stands and watches.


	32. Chapter 32

**_Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing your thoughts on my story._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 32**

 **3 months later**

"Hurry up Moony, I want to get decent seats near the fire in the common room," Potter says to Lupin as Lupin struggles to fit a textbook into his bag whilst the other Marauders "It's freezing."

"One sec." Lupin replies. Once he's finally stuffed the book, they rush off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

"See," I hiss to Lily. "How can you not see it? Moony, how can he not be a werewolf?" But Lily just rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"They'd never let a werewolf in the school Sev," She replies. "It's probably just some weird inside joke."

 **2 weeks later**

As I stand up to put my textbooks that I've just finished using for my homework in my dormitory, I see that Regulus is staring at one of his books in confusion. Instead of heading to the stairs to the dormitories, I walk towards Regulus and sit in the empty armchair next to him.

"Struggling?" I ask him. He jumps slightly at the sound of my voice.

"Yeah, this doesn't make any sense." He tells me, pointing to the page of potion ingredient properties he was on. "I don't get how to work out which ones counteract other ones." I take the textbook from him and begin to explain. It takes about an hour before he finally gets it, but when he does, he flashes me a smile.

"Thank you for explaining it Severus," Regulus says. "I would've been stuck for hours if you hadn't."

"Happy to help, if you don't get anything, just ask me, I don't mind helping." I tell him and he nods.

"Thanks."

 **A week later**

"Oi, Snivellus!" I hear Black say from behind me. "I want a word with you."

"Well I don't want one with you." I say turning around to give him a withering look before continuing on.

"Well too bad," He says, grabbing my arm. It's then that I realise that he is alone. "Keep away from Regulus."

"What?" I asked, confused. Why's he annoyed at me for helping his brother with homework. Surely he should be thanking me?

"I don't want any of you and your so called friends influencing him with pure blood supremacy rubbish," He tells me. "It's bad enough when he gets fed lies at home, he doesn't need you."

"I don't agree with that, you know I don't. I'm friends with Lily." I reply, though I am beginning to doubt my own beliefs with muggles. What the older Slytherin students say about it all does make a lot of sense, but I don't understand the hatred towards muggle borns. I'm so confused these days. Lily and I can't talk as much these days because of it. People in Slytherin don't approve of our friendship because of her blood status.

"Some of the things you've been saying recently has made me question that," Black says. "Just stay away from my brother, that's all."

"I was only helping him with homework."

"Well next time he needs help, tell him to find me. Stay away from him, Snivellus." He snarls, before walking off.

 **A month later**

"Severus," I look up and see Regulus standing in front of me with a large sheet of parchment and a textbook. "Would you mind helping me?" I close my book slowly, unsure of what to do. I want to help him, but if Black finds out about it again, I don't want any trouble with the Marauders.

"Your brother says if you need help with school work, you should go to him." I say eventually.

"But you explain it so well," Regulus argues. "He's so bad at it. He only found out last time because I mentioned it in passing and he wouldn't drop it until I told him everything that happened. I just won't tell him this time." I am still torn though. I've had a bit of peace from them all recently, I don't want to start it all up again. But then Regulus does really want help, and I shouldn't deny him that should I?

"Well..." I trail off. "As long as he never finds out." Regulus smiles at me.

"He won't. Thanks Severus."

 **A month later**

"Hey, Evans, give us a snog." Disgusted, Lily and I turn our heads to see it is Potter who is also sitting on the grass, a little way off from us. It seems him and the Marauders are studying out here like me and Lily. Something in me twists towards my heart. It takes a moment to realise that it is jealousy.

It's been like this for a while. At first I thought that it might just be because we were good friends, but it's been going on for sometime now and I'm beginning to think that I might be in love with Lily Evans. The sound of her laugh makes my heart beat faster and whenever we touch, just by accident, I feel like I'm on top of the world. I don't think Lily would ever see me as anything more than a friend though, and that more than anything breaks my heart.


	33. Chapter 33

**_Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing your thoughts on my story._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 33**

 **2 months later**

"Severus?" Lily asks me as we sit with our feet dangling in the murky river. "Is there going to be a war?" I shrug.

"It's already started," I tell her. "They're just hiding it well, particularly for those at Hogwarts. The only person that the Dark Lord is afraid of is Professor Dumbledore, so Hogwarts is safe. When we're not at Hogwarts, we live in the muggle community. All those disappearances, rises in crime, that's not the muggles. It's the war. Even the muggles are noticing its effects." I tell her.

"The Dark Lord?" Lily asks.

"He who must not be named, You know who." I say. "All the same person. Everyone's too scared to say his actual name."

"What is it though?" She asks me. I lean in close to whisper it. Most in Slytherin call him the Dark Lord and are planning on swearing their allegiance to him when they finish at Hogwarts, or have family members that have already joined him. Regina wants to join him, and I have to admit, I'm tempted. They say that he's offering protection against muggles. He's going to give his followers power. Part of me wants power, but another part of me is pulling me back. The Dark Lord also wants to kill muggle borns and I don't want Lily to get harmed. I love her and want to protect her to my last breath.

"Voldemort."

 **3 months later**

"Crucio." I watch as Bella points her wand at a young, third year muggle born. The boy withers in pain and squeals. Someone else casts a silencing spell on him so that no one overhears us. It's the first Hogsmeade visit and I decided to go with Regina to meet some of Voldemort's followers to find out more about him. One of them spotted a muggle born and decided to have some fun. I have to turn my head slightly so that I don't have to watch the suffering of the boy.

"What's up Severus, you not man enough to watch?" Lucius asks me.

"No, no..." I say quickly. "It's just... what did he do wrong?"

"He is scum." Cissy tells me. "Mudblood. He's not worthy to go to Hogwarts. Why don't you take a turn, maybe you'll see it differently when you feel the power." My hand shaking slightly, I take out my wand. I cannot appear weak in front of them. I must do this. It's not like he'll have any recollection of it. We'll wipe his memory afterwards.

"Crucio." I mutter, pointing my wand towards him. His body jerks around in a fresh wave of agony. Guilt flows through me, but something else too. The power. It feels good to hold power over someone, to have control of the situation. And it scares me. More than anything else in the world. I fear that I will end up betraying Lily if I continue down this dark path.

 **1 month later**

"Severus, my parents have asked me if you would like to stay around my house over Christmas. They found out that you always stay at Hogwarts except at summer, and insist that you shouldn't stay alone at Christmas. You'll be able to see your family as well." Lily says. I shift on my feet uncomfortably, on one hand it would be nice to see my mum more than once this year, but then it is nice staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. It's a good time to get some peace and quiet.

"I don't know..." I say.

"Come on," She says. "It'll be fun." And if I go to Lily's house some people won't like that I spent time at a mudblood's house. "Please."

"Fine," I agree eventually.

"Awesome, I'll write back straight away." Lily grins, running off in the direction of the owlery.

 **Christmas day**

"Merry Christmas Sev," Lily yells, bursting into the guest room that I am using as my bedroom over Christmas. I

"Lily, it's only six o'clock, I want to sleep." I groan, sitting up in bed.

"What's the point in going back to sleep now that you're awake?" Lily asks grinning.

"Because I'm tired." I say, flopping back in my bed.

"Ugh, you're so boring," She moans walking out again. "I'll see you in two hours." Smiling slightly to myself, I roll back over in the bed and go back to sleep.

"Thank you," I say as Belle passes me a carefully wrapped parcel. I open it carefully and see that there is a huge assortment of sweets: Bertie Botts every flavour beans, chocolate frogs, sugar quills and loads more.

"Here you go Tuney," Lily smiles, passing Petunia a large package, but Petunia doesn't take it.

"I don't accept things from freaks." She hisses.

"Petunia!" Henry glares at Petunia. "Apologise to Lily." Petunia glares at Lily.

"It's fine," Lily tells her dad. "I don't mind."

"No, Petunia, you've been horrible and bullied Lily ever since she found out that she was a witch." Belle said. "Petunia needs to learn that having magic doesn't make you a freak, it's a gift."

"I'm not going to apologise for saying the truth." Petunia said, before standing up and walking out of the room. I can see that as she leaves, there are tears in her eyes. Life must be hard for her.


	34. Chapter 34

**_I may not be able to update next week because I'm on holiday, but I'll try my best. Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing your thoughts on my story._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 34**

 **2 months later**

"Shove off mudblood." I snarled, glaring at a tiny, first year Hufflepuff girl. Regina laughed at this.

"Yeah, this is our spot, shift midget." She added. The girl looked terrified at us and runs off. And Regina rolls her eyes. "They shouldn't even let mudbloods into Hogwarts. They've lived with muggles their whole lives. They just want to steal our magic."

"I know right," I reply. I feel like I am betraying Lily by doing all this, saying the word mudblood, but it is the only way that I will be allowed to join the Dark Lord's ranks. I would never call Lily that though. A mudblood. She doesn't know that I am planning to join him when I have finished Hogwarts. If I join him and am loyal, he may spare her life when he eradicates all the muggle borns.

"We have so much work to do this year. I'm sure it was nowhere near this bad last year." Regina complains, bringing out some parchment and a textbook.

"It's because they're preparing us for our OWLs next year," I remind her. "They're supposed to be really hard and will determine what NEWTs we can do and so what career we have."

"Not that that will matter," Regina sighs. "I will do whatever the Dark Lord tells me. Are you planning on joining up too?" She asks me and I nod.

"Of course," I reply. "He wants to make muggles suffer after what my dad has put me through, I want nothing more than to make them suffer. All of them." This is a lie. I know that not all muggles are like my father. Most are good, but to survive I have to pretend.

 **1 month later**

"What's all this scribbling Snivellus?" Black asks, snatching my potions book off me and waving it tauntingly above my head.

"Pass it here." Potter takes it off Black and reads some of the spells as I take my wand out.

"Expelliarmus." Pettigrew says, pointing his wand at me. I don't have time to deflect it so my wand flies out of my hand and into Lupin's.

"Let's see. Levicorpus, let's see what that does," Potter grins, pointing his wand at me. "Levicorpus." I snigger, knowing that he clearly hadn't read the bit where I had put it was non-verbal next to it.

"Look you dingus, it's non-verbal," Black laughs, taking the book back from him. He points his wand at me. I am suddenly flung upside down.

"Don't look so smug now, do you Snivellus?" Pettigrew laughs at me. I scrabble with my fingers through the air, desperate to snatch my wand back.

"Petrificus totalus." I hear someone yell and Potter collapses to the floor. "Stupefy." Black is down now so the spell on me has broken so I collapse onto the floor to help my rescuer deal with Lupin and Pettigrew. I snatch the wand off Lupin and kick him away before he can react then point my wand at his leg.

"Sectumsempra." He cries out in pain as blood flows from a wound on his leg. Then I turn to Pettigrew but my rescuer has already stunned them. I look and see that it is Regina who helped me. "Stupefy." I mutter to Lupin so that he collapses next to his 3 friends.

"Thanks." I mutter. "They took me by surprise." She grins.

"No worries," She smiles. "Besides, now the real fun begins. She takes her bag off her back and pulls out a couple of bottles of firewhiskey. "I was going to save these until we beat Ravenclaw in the quidditch match tonight, but this will be much funnier. She opens both of the bottles and begins to tip them over the four unmoving bodies. "Now it'll look like the got drunk and have a duel." She grinned. I take one of the now almost empty bottles and put it in Black's hand. Regina chucks the other bottle next to them and we walk away, leaving them there until the spells on them will no longer be effective.

 **2 months later**

"I thought we were supposed to be friends, best friends." I say to Lily.

"We are Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging around with. I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber. Mulciber, what do you see in him Sev, he's creepy. Do you know what he tried to do to Mary Mcdonald the other day?" She asks me as we reach a pillar. She stops and leans against it.

"That was nothing," I argue. "It was a laugh that's all." I need to steer the conversation away from this. I have to pretend to fit in with everyone else in Slytherin. Lily doesn't understand what it's like.

"It was dark magic and if you think that's funny..."

"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?" I demand. She's always getting annoyed at me because of what my friends do but she always neglects to talk about what some of the things people she hangs out with do.

"What's Potter got to do with anything?" Lily asks me.

"They sneak out at night," I say. I overheard them discussing plans to sneak out so I cast a disillusionment charm on myself and waited for them to come out. "There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"

"He's ill," Lily says, rolling her eyes slightly.

"They say he's ill every month on the full moon." I reply.

"I know your theory. Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"

"I'm just trying to show you they aren't as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are."

"They don't use dark magic though. And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the whomping willow and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there."

"Saved?" I splutter. That was not what happened. I was getting proof that Lupin was a werewolf. Potter was just stopping me from exposing him and his friends. "You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too. You're not going to... I won't let you-"

"Let me?" Lily questions.

"I didn't mean... I don't want you made a fool of. He fancies you James Potter fancies you." I say with disgust. How he thinks he could ever get someone like Lily, I have no idea. "He's not... Everyone thinks... big quidditch hero-"

"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag." She says, cutting across me. "I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber and Avery's idea of humour is just evil, evil, Sev. I just don't understand how you can be friends with them. I'm not really listening now though. Lily hates James. Maybe I do have a chance with her after all.

 **2 months later**

"At least they're finally all over," I say to Regina as we come out of our final exam, transfiguration. "Now we can relax for the rest of the term."

"It's only a week left though," She points out, wrinkling her nose. "But still, better than studying for exams."

"Do you want to go and do some flying?" Regina asks me. "I haven't had chance to go flying in ages." I groan slightly.

"Do we have to?" I complain. "I hate flying." She rolls her eyes.

"You only hate it because Potter is way better at it than you." She says.

"No I don't," I argue. "He's not even that good anyway. I don't get why everyone thinks that he's such a good quidditch player."


	35. Chapter 35

_**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 35**

 **1 month later**

"Severus, there's someone at the door for you," Mum says, opening my bedroom door. I jump up and put my book on my bed, rushing to get downstairs. Normally, I wouldn't hop down the stairs two at a time, but my dad's not here. If he was, I'd get at least 20 lashes with the belt.

I expect the person waiting at the door to be Lily, but to my surprise, Regina and Regulus are standing there. What doesn't surprise me though, is that they're holding hands. Last term they did seem to be spending loads of time together so it doesn't surprise me that they're dating. In September lots of people will probably see it as strange because of the age gap, but Regulus is mature for his age, so they fit really well together.

"Hey, why the visit?" I ask them. Regina smiles.

"You make it sound like we're not welcome," Regina laughs. "It's just there's a meeting tonight, to do with the Dark Lord. He'll be speaking and then there's gonna be a raid. They're asking around for people that are still in Hogwarts to come along to get a feel for what it's like."

"But if there's a raid won't we have to use magic?" I point out. "We're underage so we still have the trace on us."

"The trace can only detect where magic is performed. The raid's gonna be in London so they won't be able to tell if it's underage or not because loads of people in London use magic legally, they won't notice us doing magic as well."

"I don't know..." I trail off. "My dad'll get mad at me if I'm out too late."

"Who cares about your dad?" Regulus asks. "This is a great opportunity to see what things will be like when we join up with the Dark Lord."

"My dad hits me with his belt if he gets mad at me," I reveal. "I have to be back by 9 or he'll beat me." Regulus and Regina's mouths both widen to an 'o' shape.

"I've heard of muggles beating their children, but I didn't think they did it for minor things like that," Regina said in shock. "How about you pack all your school stuff and come and stay with me for the rest of the holidays then? We can go to the meeting and raid and then you won't get in trouble afterwards." I nod.

"Come in," I say, stepping aside so that they can come into my house. "I'll just need to check with my mum first." I walk into the lounge where my mum is dusting. "Mum, can I stay with Regina for the rest of the holidays?" I ask. She turns to look at me, slightly surprised. Regina and Regulus look stunned at the bruises and swelling on my mum's face, but thankfully neither of them say anything.

"If that's what you want, your dad won't have an issue with it," She says. "I assume you'll go shopping at Diagon Alley with Regina when your book list arrives." Regina nods.

"Yep, and we'll take him to Kings Cross on the 1st." She smiles.

"That's very kind of you," Mum smiles. "Are you going today?" I nod.

"I'll go pack now." I say.

"Have fun Severus," Mum says, hugging me. "I'll see you next summer I expect." I nod.

"Bye mum."

"Severus' dad is a monster, we couldn't let him stay there," Regina says to her parents later once we've come back from the meeting and raid. The raid was actually really fun. It turns out that we didn't even need to use magic in the end. We were just vandalising muggle homes so we weren't using magic so that no one would suspect it was people from the wizarding world. We just acted like muggle vandals. The Dark Lord wants to induce fear in the muggle and wizarding world alike, so making the authorities confused about whether it was just some vandalism or an attack on muggles is a good way to do it. Throwing bricks at cars and smashing windows is actually surprisingly fun. "His dad beats him and his mum."

"I guess it's not long until school starts back anyway," Her dad says. "But it would be helpful if you gave us some warning, we haven't got the guest bedroom prepared."

"Thanks dad," Regina smiles. "You're the best."

"I don't mind helping with the chores," I offer. "It's so kind of you to have me for the rest of the summer." But Regina's mum gives me a weird look.

"Do you not have a house elf?" She asks me and I shake my head.

"My dad's a muggle so I was brought up in a muggle community away from magic," I explain and both of Regina's parents look shocked. "I hate him though. All muggles are the same, filthy animals. He's no family of mine." I add this because if Regina is going to be joining the Dark Lord, then her parents probably think that muggles are dirt too.

 **3 months later**

"Come on Evans, what's so bad about me?" Potter laughs. "Just one date." Lily turns to him, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Why on earth would I want to go out with you?" Lily asked him, raising her eyebrow.

"Come on Evans, there's only so many times you can keep rejecting the same guy," Black grins. "Just say yes and he will stop bothering you."

"If there's only so many times I can keep rejecting the same guy, then there's only so many times a guy can ask me out." Lily replied.

"Come on Evans, I'm not that bad." Potter laughed. I pull out my wand and mutter a spell under my breath. The bat bogey hex. Lily laughs at him mirthlessly before we walk away together. I don't think Potter will ever give up trying to get Lily to date him.


	36. Chapter 36

_**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 36**

 **2 months later**

"Give it back!" A laugh, whilst dangling the boy's bag just above his head where he cannot reach. He leaps up frantically, trying to snag his fingers on the fabric and snatch it back off me.

"Mudbloods don't deserve to own things." I snarl. I hate myself for saying it, but this is all to protect Lily. I need to earn the Dark Lord's approval and that's not going to happen if I don't bully mudbloods like loads of the other Slytherins do.

"Please..." He begs, trying to jump higher. "I have money, just leave me alone."

"Why would we want a mudblood's money?" Regulus sneers at him. Tears begin to run down the boy's face as I chuck the bag to Regulus. The boy spins and tries to catch it in mid-air, but I flick my wand and he falls flat on his face.

"Expelliarmus!" I hear someone roar and quickly cast a shield charm around Regulus and I. The boy scrambles up as Black walks over to us. "Regulus what are you doing?"

"Teaching mudbloods a lesson." He sniggers and Black swings his fist up and punches him in the mouth, leaving a trickle of blood that Regulus quickly wipes away.

"Don't tell me you really believe the lies that our parents tell you about muggle borns," Black tells him. "They're just manipulating you."

"You're just jealous." Regulus replies, but he drops the bag that the small boy grabs before sprinting off.

"Oh yeah?" Black raises an eyebrow at his brother.

"Yeah. You wish that you weren't such a disappointment to our parents, that you could be more like me."

 **2 months later**

"Happy Birthday Lily," I smile, handing her a carefully wrapped parcel. It's a sparkling sapphire necklace that I saw in Knockturn Alley at Christmas. I immediately thought of Lily when I saw it. Of course it was completely out of my price range, but it only took a second to cast a confundus charm on the guy selling it and take it. I shouldn't have taken it, but the guy selling it – Mundungus Fletcher – is a well known crook. Stealing it from a thief to give to a friend can't be that bad a crime, can it? She unwraps it and opens the box that the necklace is in and gasps.

"Oh, Sev, you shouldn't have," She says, picking it up carefully and looking at it closer. "It's beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it," I say as she holds it up to me so I will put it on. It takes me a moment to put it on because the clasp is fiddly, but when it's done she turns around and I smile at her. "Perfect."

 **4 months later**

"I don't need help from a filthy little mudblood like her." I snarl. The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Guilt and shame rise up in me. What will Lily think? Will she forgive me? I didn't mean. I was just so use to calling all over muggle borns mudbloods. It just came out. Her face fills with hurt and anger.

"I won't bother in future," She snarls. "And if I were you Snivellus, I'd wash my hair."

"Apologise to Evans." Potter demands.

"I don't want you to make him apologise, you're just as bad as he is." This fills me with a little bit of hope. At least she sees how awful the Marauders really are. She just doesn't understand that I don't mean any of it. I had to it as to protect her.


	37. Chapter 37

_**This chapter flips between Lily and Severus' POVs quite a bit.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 37**

 **A week later**

"Lily please, just hear me out," I beg. "Just give me five minutes." She doesn't even bother replying, she just storms off, her eyes icy with anger. I sigh. I wish she'd just let me talk to her. Let me explain. I'd leave her alone for good, if she'd just hear me out. It breaks my heart that she just ignores me these days. All those years of friendship down the drain because I called her a mudblood. I know what I did was unforgivable, but she could at least hear me out.

 **Lily's POV**

I have to blink back the tears as I walk away from Sev. I still can't believe that he called me that word. Or that he's even trying to talk to me. I can never forgive him. I've made exceptions for him and what his friends do in the past, but I can't any longer. He's disgusting. I wouldn't be surprised if he joins He Who Must Not Be Named and becomes a Death Eater when he leaves Hogwarts.

"You alright Evans?" I turn and see that Potter is standing behind me. Why can't everyone leave me alone.

"Shove off." I mutter and try to walk off.

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure Snape wasn't bothering you." He says in a tone that makes it sound almost like he cares about me.

"I'm fine, just leave me alone." I say and for once in his life he does. Part of me wants to forgive Severus. I think that I might be in love with him. I've had a crush on him for ages, but I always thought that he would never see me that way. I'm so confused, I love him, but I hate him. Part of myself hates myself for loving him.

 **Severus' POV**

I don't think that Lily will listen to me so I've decided to write her a letter. Maybe she'll burn it, but it's worth a try.

 _Dear Lily,_

 _I know that you probably won't read this, but I needed to explain. I know this is no excuse for what I said but I am so sorry for what I said._

 _In Slytherin, all the other houses look down on you. They think that all of us are pure-blood maniacs and are rude to us. People like Black and Potter think that they're better than us. Not all of us are like that Lily. Most are, which is why I joined in, but I didn't start out like this. I didn't even mean it, any time I said that word Lily. Being in Slytherin means that I have a lot better access to information about You Know Who than most._

 _He's powerful Lily, more powerful than any of us could possibly imagine, and I don't think the ministry is going to be strong enough to defeat him. I wanted to protect you Lily. I knew that if he took over, you'd be one of the first he killed, so I was hoping that if I became a Death Eater, if he thought that I was loyal to him, then he might spare you. I was only ever trying to protect you. It all seems pathetic now. It sounds like I'm trying to make excuses for what I did. I'm not though Lily, I swear._

 _There's something that I've never told you, told anyone. I love you Lily Evans. I know you don't feel the same way about me, but maybe telling you might help you to understand why I wanted to protect you so much. When you stopped speaking to me Lily, it felt like my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. I felt like my world was ending._

 _I feel so guilty and I wish there was some way I could make it up to you Lily, but there's not. Maybe one day you will come to understand, but I know that it's unlikely that you will ever be able to forgive me, for what I did to you, and what I've been doing to all muggle borns, is unforgivable. I am truly sorry._

 _With all my love and sorrow_

 _Sev._

 **Lily's POV**

I know that the letter is from Sev before I even open it. I know his handwriting so well. How many hours I must have sat and done homework with him, peeking over his shoulder at his scrawling handwriting to copy answers. I am tempted to set it on fire right there at the breakfast table, but something stops me.

All those years ago, Severus didn't care that I didn't believe him when he told me that I was a witch and he made me believe too. He helped me so that I knew as much as any pure-blood when I came to Hogwarts. I have to at least read it first. I owe him that much. Writing it cannot have been an easy thing for him.

I fold the letter up carefully. Severus loves me. I never thought... I can't let that get in the way of my decision though. The letter did sound sincere. Should I really let one mistake get in the way of years of friendship?

"We need to talk." I mutter to him as I pass the Slytherin table at breakfast the next day.

"Shove off mudblood," I hear someone call to me, but I just ignore them.

"Shut it," Sev says. "Don't call her that." Maybe he is changing. Before he would've said nothing if someone called me that. "When?" He turns to me.

"Meet me by the lake after lessons," I tell him. "And make sure we're alone." He nods.

"I am really sorry." He calls as I head over to the Gryffindor table.

"I know." I reply as I walk away.


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38**

"I read the letter," Lily says to me. "I-I like you too." She tells me and my heart begins to beat faster.

"Like like?" I ask her. "Or just like?"

"Like like," She tells me. "I have for a while, but that doesn't change anything."

"I know." I tell her.

"I have noticed you've changed and I do think that you're genuinely sorry," She tells me. "But that doesn't change what you said to me." She says and I nod, hope rising up in me. It sounds like she's willing to forgive me. "But I think we need to take things slowly now. I want to see that you really have changed." I nod again.

"I really am sorry," I tell her. "I'll wait for as long as you need."

"I want to stay just friends," She replies. "For now. If in a year, you really have changed and we both feel the same way about each other, then maybe it will be different." A year. I thought that it would be much longer than that until I could get Lily to trust me again. She must realise how genuine I am.

 **1 month later**

"Severus, there's an owl for you," My mum says and I quickly run down the stairs, two at a time. It must be my book list and more importantly OWL results. Nerves flutter through my stomach as my mum hands me the parchment. I rip it open quickly, not bothering to read all the writing at the top, I look straight at my grades.

 _Ancient Runes - O_

 _Astronomy – E_

 _Arithmancy - O_

 _Care of Magical Creatures – E_

 _Charms – O_

 _Defence Against the Dark Arts – O_

 _Herbology – E_

 _History of Magic - A_

 _Potions – O_

 _Transfiguration – E_

I smile as I reach the bottom of the sheet of parchment. I passed everything and did better than I could have hoped for. I got five Os! And only got one A. I wonder if Lily did as well as me.

"Well?" My mum asks.

"O in ancient runes, arithmancy, charms, defence against the dark arts and potions. E in astronomy, care of magical creatures, herbology and transfiguration. A in history of magic." I tell her and she squeals slightly and hugs me.

"That's incredible, Severus," She tells me. "You're going to have a tough choice about what subjects to do next year."

"Is it okay if I go to Lily's and see how she's done?" I ask and mum nods hesitantly. She knows that something happened between Lily and I last year because we hang out a lot less now, but she hasn't pried. I quickly rush to put my shoes on and run to Lily's house. I haven't even rung her doorbell when the door opens.

"How did you do Sev?" She asks me.

"Five Os, four Es and an A," I tell her. "You?"

"That's amazing," She replies, standing aside to let me in her house. "One O, eight Es, one A and a P." She only failed one.

"You did so good as well," I tell her. "Do you want to hang out today to celebrate?"

 **2 months later**

"Hey, Lily," Lily turns and sees Potter standing behind her. "Why are you hanging out with him?" He gestures to me, speaking as if I'm not even here. "He's a death eater, he hates people like you." My face begins to burn with anger. Has he not noticed how most of the other Slytherins treat me know that I've stopped bullying muggle borns and don't support the Dark Lord.

"He is not a death eater," She replied. "He's changed."

"Or he just wants to get his greasy hands up your top." Black muttered darkly from behind Potter. I turn on him angrily.

"What is your problem with me?" I ask, annoyed. "You hated me because of the things I did to muggle borns to earn respect of the other Slytherins, now I've stopped and the other Slytherins hate me, you still hate me."

"You've given my brother a death sentence," Black replied. "He thinks that You Know Who is the best thing that's ever happened. He's got in too deep. He doesn't know what he's doing."

"I managed to back out," I tell him. "He has to want to though. I can try and speak to him if you want. He's one of the few people in Slytherin that is still speaking to me." Black nods at this, not wanting to seem too friendly with me, but clearly grateful.

 **1 month later**

"Severus," I turn and see Lupin behind me. "Sirius wants to talk to you." I groan internally.

"Why couldn't he come to tell me himself?" I ask, narrowing my eyes in suspicion.

"He thought you might walk away if he came up to you himself," Lupin replied. "He's down by the lake."

"Fine," I reply and Lupin leads me down to the lake where Black is waiting for me. "What?" I ask Black when we reach him. To my surprise, he is alone. Potter and Pettigrew are nowhere to be seen.

"I just wanted to say thank you," Black said. He sounds genuine. He has to be genuine, he's to proud for it not to be genuine. He'd never thank me unless it was real. "For trying to talk to Regulus. I get it now, why you wanted to be a Death Eater. I'm not saying it was a smart decision, it was dumb. But I get it. It's the same reason that Regulus is gonna become one. I'm sorry for judging you, for wanting to be Slytherin, you're not evil. Misguided maybe, but certainly not evil." It takes me a moment to process his apology. He must care about Regulus a lot if he was willing to apologise to me. "I'm not saying I want to be friends, old habits die hard, but we're cool, okay?" He smiles slightly holding his hand out to shake to start a truce. I nod, taking his hand.

"Okay,"


	39. Chapter 39

**_Once again thank you for all your reviews. I'm planning on having maybe 10-15 more chapters of this story and if I have enough time I'll be updating twice a week now._**

 **Chapter 39**

"I heard you and Sirius talked without trying to kill each other the other day," Lily says to me. "I'm surprised you would even talk to him." I shrug.

"If he was going to try and hurt me, I would've beaten him in a duel easily." I tell her. "We're done being five year olds now." Lily looks at me in disbelief.

"Really?" She asks me and I nod.

"Yeah," I tell her smiling. "I spoke to Regulus for him. He hasn't come round, but Sirius was just grateful that I tried."

"You've changed a lot Severus," Lily smiles. "And I'm glad."

"Stupefy!" I pull my wand out and perform a non-verbal shield charm around us before the spell hits one of us. I look behind and see it was sent from a small group of 7th year Slytherins.

"Protecting the mudblood are we Severus?" One of them jeers. I feel my face blush.

"Don't call her that," I snarl, stepping forward, my wand raised. They all laugh at me. "Sectumsempra!" I yell in anger at the nearest. They shout out in pain as a rip opens on their leg and blood starts seeping out and they groan in agony. "Leave us alone." I growl and Lily and I begin to walk off when Mcgonagall steps in front of me, looking livid. Oops. I should've probably checked to see if there were any teachers nearby.

"Snape, Evans, Mulciber, Nott and Avery, Professor Dumbledore's office now!" She yells.

"But Lily didn't even do anything," I protest. I don't mind taking detentions for this, but Lily is innocent. She's not getting in trouble on my account.

"I said now," She scowls at me.

"It's okay," Lily whispers to me as the five of us are led up to Dumbledore's office by Mcgonagall. "It's not your fault."

"Ah, professor, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Dumbledore says as we enter his office.

"There was an-" She pauses here, thinking of the right word. "Incident."

"Mulciber, Nott, Avery, stay here," Dumbledore says, gesturing to some seats for them to sit in. "Professor, I trust that you will keep an eye on those two outside."

"Of course," She says, leading Lily and I back outside the office and we stand in silence until the other three come out glowering with Dumbledore behind them.

"Snape, Evans, in," He says and then mutters something to Mcgonagall before following us in. He gestures to a couple of seats on the other side of his desk and we sit down. "In your own words, describe the incident that just took place. Severus, you first."

"I heard someone trying to stupefy one of us, so I cast a shield charm around us and then one of them called Lily-"

"Them?" Dumbledore asked.

"Mulciber, Nott and Avery," I tell him. "I don't know who it was. One of them called Lily a-a mudblood." I continue. "So I lost my temper and attacked the first one I saw, Nott."

"And that was all?" Dumbledore asks and I nod.

"Yes, Lily and I were just about to go when Professor Mcgonagall intervened."

"And Lily, what did you see?"

"It was like Sev said," She tells him. "They attacked us and then called me a-" She breaks off here. She's clearly upset about it. "And then Severus attacked Nott." Dumbledore nods.

"You may go Miss Evans, I don't believe you had any involvement in this incident other than being a victim." Lily nods and stands up, shooting me a sympathetic look and then leaves. "So you're saying that the others are lying when they said that you were making fun of them." I nod.

"We didn't even see them when we were walking past," I tell him. "I only reacted because of what they called Lily."

"Do you mind if I confirm that?" Dumbledore asks me.

"How?" I ask. I know that veritaserum is banned at Hogwarts so he can't use.

"Legilimency," He tells me. "If you consent, I will look into your mind, at this incident, and only this incident." I pause, thinking. If I let him in, he could see anything, but it will clear up any questions about whether I was provoked or not. I nod.

"Okay," I say. "I'll do it."

"Legilimens." Dumbledore says, pointing his wand at me. I feel something inside me and then the memory of Mulciber, Nott and Avery attacking us resurfaces. A moment later there's a flash of white light and I am stumbling across Dumbledore's office. "Are you okay?" He asks me and I nod.

"What happened?" I ask him.

"It appears you are a very talented at occulemency," He tells me.

"Occulemency?" I say. I recognise the word, but I have no idea where from.

"Reading minds as it were," He tells me. "It also means that you can block out people who try to look through your mind, like I just did."

"But did you see the memory?" I ask. I just want all this to be over.

"Yes," He says. "You will receive two weeks of detention starting tomorrow evening. I expect you to be in my office at seven o'clock sharp."

"Yes sir," I say, standing up. I guess I'm getting such a harsh punishment because sectumsempra could be used to cause great harm to someone.

"And Severus," Dumbledore calls just as I'm about to leave the office.

"Yes sir?"

"That's an impressive spell you created there," He smiles. "And send the other three in."


	40. Chapter 40

_**I'm not sure if I'll be able to update on Saturday because school starts back tomorrow, but I'll do my best.**_

 **Chapter 40**

"What did you get then?" Lily asks me as I pass the Gryffindor table on the way to the Great Hall that evening on my way to dinner.

"Two weeks of detention," I tell her, shrugging. "Bit annoying, but the other three got suspended for two weeks so it's not that bad." I hear a low whistle and see Lupin standing behind me.

"Two weeks, what happened?" Lupin asks me. I take note of his tired eyes and ragged look and remember it was a full moon recently.

"They tried to stupefy us but I blocked it, then they called Lily a you know what so I used sectumsempra on one of them only it turned out Mcgonagall saw the whole thing," I explain, looking over at the Slytherin table. Regina and Regulus are both giving me dirty glares. I think even they are going to stop talking to me now I got three other Slytherin students suspended.

"You know there's not actually a rule about sitting at the correct house tables unless it's a feast," Lupin tells me, seeing my nervous glance at the Slytherin table.

"I can cope," I say, beginning to walk away. "It'll only make it worse in the common room later."

"If you're sure," He says, shrugging. I nod and walk over to the Slytherin table where I am greeted only by scowls and glares. I sigh and begin to eat as quickly as possible. The second I am done, I stand up again. At least for the next two weeks I have an excuse to eat quickly.

 **3 days later**

"Hey muggle lover," I hear somebody shout as I slam a book shut in the library, ignoring them.

"What's wrong with muggles?" To my surprise I turn and see that it's Lupin coming to my rescue. "10 points from Slytherin." I smirk as he uses his prefect power to stop them annoying me. "You okay?" He asked me and I nod. "The password to the Gryffindor common room is cleansweep."

"A lot nicer than our passwords," I mutter darkly. Our latest one is 'pure-blood'. The brand of broomstick is a much more pleasant password than the Slytherin ones.

"You may want to use a dislusionment charm though," He warns me. I nod.

"Lu-Remus," For the first time, I address him by his first name. "Why help me?" He shrugs.

"You could still tell everyone about me," He replies. "About me." He doesn't expand, but I know that he's talking about being a werewolf. At first I was repulsed by it, but the more I think about it, I realise that it's not really his fault. How could he help being bitten a werewolf?

"I won't," I tell him. "I considered it at first. You've never been as bad as Potter and Black toward me though. And you've been decent towards me since I stopped wanting to become a Death Eater."

"I know what it's like to be attacked because of a stereotype," He shrugs. "You've changed, anyone who's looking could see that, but people put labels on people and don't bother checking if they still fit. Maybe once, Death Eater, was your label, but not anymore." He gives me a weak smile before walking away, leaving me realising all this time Remus and I were a lot more similar than either of us knew.

"Hey Lily," I whisper, a few minutes later once I've got into the Gryffindor common room. She looks around in surprise, but can't see me due to the dislusionment charm I've put on myself. "It's Sev, I've got a dislusionment charm on me."

"How did you get in here?" She hisses.

"Remus told me that password," I tell her. "Some Slytherins were giving me hassle in the library."

"It'll all die down eventually," She tells me. "I'd take you to my dormitory so we could talk properly, but boys can't get into girls' dormitories." I sigh slightly.

"Why are you talking to yourself, Lily?" I turn and see James walking towards us just as Remus enters the common room.

"I wasn't talking to anyone," Lily lies, blushing slightly. Neither James or Sirius looks convinced, but Remus appears.

"What's up?" He says.

"Lily is going crazy and talking to herself," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not crazy," Lily said in exasperation.

"Did Severus come up here after all then?" Remus asked, working out what was going on.

"Yes," I say at the same time as Sirius and James speak.

"Snape?"

"He was getting hassled so I told him to come up here," Remus explained.

"Sirius, Peter and I were just gonna play never have I ever," James said. "Do you wanna come with us?" He asks, looking in the general direction my voice is coming from.

"Is this your version where if you have done whatever someone hasn't done you have to take a swig of firewhiskey?" Remus asked.

"Of course," Sirius laughed. "What's the point if you don't get completely smashed?"

 **A week later**

"Sev?" Lily asks me.

"Yeah?" I ask, looking up from my textbook at her.

"You know how I said I wanted to wait a year before we started dating, so I could make sure you really had changed?" I nod, wondering if she's going to tell me that she doesn't like me in that way anymore. "If you want to, I'd like to date you now."

"You want to be my girlfriend?" I ask in surprise and she nods. I lean over the table filled with our textbooks and kiss her cheek. "I love you Lily." She smiles back at me.

"I love you too Sev."


	41. Chapter 41

**Chapter 41**

 **A week later**

I take Lily's hand and give it a slight squeeze as we walk into the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. We're on our first official date. "Do you want a butterbeer?" I ask her and she nods, digging into her pocket for the money.

"I'll pay," I say quickly, heading over to the counter to get the butterbeers.

"I can pay for my own," Lily objects.

"I know you can," I say, putting emphasis on 'can'. "But I want to pay."

"Thanks," She says a couple of minutes later as we sit down with our drinks. "Areb you gonna sign up for apparition lessons?" She asks me. I nod.

"Yeah," I tell her. "It's supposed to be really difficult, but it'll make life so much easier if I can just disappear in one place and reappear wherever I want to go."

"I've heard it's not a pleasant experience as well," Lily says. "It puts me off slightly, but I think I'll go for it. Even if I get my licence and never actually apparate, it'll just be useful in case I did ever need to apparate."

"Splinching is supposed to be really painful as well," I tell Lily who looks confused at the term 'splinching'. "It's when you apparate, but you don't concentrate on the destination properly so you leave part of your body behind." Lily winces at this.

"I can understand why it's painful," She says. "I hope I never do it."

 **A few days later**

"Hey Lily," I smile, sliding into the space next to her on the Gryffindor table at breakfast.

"Oh, hi Sev," She smiled, turning away from her conversation with Mary. "You decided to join me today." I shrug, holding her hand under the table.

"Well I figured things in the common room couldn't really get much worse," I tell her. "So I thought I'd join you. I'll have a more pleasant conversation than I do with them." All around us I hear whisperings and most of the teachers are staring at me, but there's no rule about me sitting here. I don't think I've ever seen someone from one house sit at the table of another house, so everyone's a bit shocked I think, but I just ignore them. I'm used to the whispers that seem to follow me everywhere these days.

"Severus?" I turn past Lily where the voice is coming from, and to my surprise it is Mary. "I'm really struggling with that defence homework, Lily said you wouldn't mind if I asked you for help. Would you be able to?" She asks and I nod. Teaching someone something is a good way to revise anyway so it'll reinforce it for me.

"Yeah, sure," I say. "What bit is it you don't get?"

"The theory behind non-verbal spells," Mary tells me. "I've just about mastered some of the non-verbal spells we have to know, but the theory is so confusing."

"Okay, I'll try and work out a less confusing way to explain it than the textbook," I tell her. "I'm free this evening if you want to meet in the library."

"Awesome, thanks," She smiles.

It's not difficult to notice the glares and whispers aimed at me that evening when I go back to the Slytherin common after helping Mary that evening. They seem to follow me everywhere these days. Especially since Lily and have started dating. They all say that I'm a traitor. I have a horrible feeling that when some of them become Death Eaters, I might be targeted. I don't care what happens to me though as long as Lily is safe. As long as they don't attack her, I don't care what happens to me.

 **2 weeks later**

"How come you're not coming home for Christmas?" Lily asks me.

"I don't want to," I tell her. "Things at home aren't great for me."

"I don't get why you'd want to stay at Hogwarts though," Lily argues. "Most people here hate you."

"Just leave it, Lily," I tell her. "I'll be fine."

"But-" She protests, but Sirius who's sitting next to us interrupts.

"Lily, trust me, staying at Hogwarts can be better than the alternative," He says, shooting me a sympathetic look.

"I was just saying," Lily muttered.

"I don't even go back in the summer anymore," Sirius tells me. "James' parents let me bunk at his. Families suck right?" I nod, thinking of the scars criss crossing across my back.

"Yup," I reply.

"You can stay with me at Christmas if you want," James offers from across the table. "Sirius, Remus and Peter are all staying round, my parents wouldn't mind if there was another, you'd be sharing with Peter though."

"Are you sure?" I ask him. We haven't really been friends that long, but we do get on quite well now. I think it was just unlikely we got off on the wrong foot on the train to Hogwarts.

"It's fine," James says. "I'll write to my parents later and tell them to expect one more."

"Thanks," I smile, leaning across the table and taking a couple of slices of toast.

 **A week later**

"Hurry up, Severus," James says as I drag my case off the Hogwarts Express. "Mum's promised that she'll have a plate of warm mince pies and butterbeers ready for when we get home and I'm starving." I roll my eyes and quicken my pace to catch up with him Sirius and Peter.

"And you must be Severus," James' dad smiles at me when we reach him waiting for us on the platform.

"Yes, it's so good of you to have me over Christmas, sir," I say as he takes my case for me.

"It's nothing, a friend of James is a friend of mine," He smiles at me. "And please, call me Fleamont, all the other boys do." I nod as we get out of King's Cross. "And James, before you ask, yes your mum has made the mince pies that she promised." James grinned at this and Sirius laughed.

"Sev, you have not lived until you've tried Mrs P's mince pies," He tells me. "They are to die for."

"They are," Peter agrees. "Way better than the ones we get at Hogwarts."


	42. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42**

"Wake up Severus!" I open my eyes blearily just as Sirius jumps onto my bed, grinning at me. "Come on! It's Christmas." He yells, doing the perfect impression of a 5 year old at Christmas.

"I'm awake," I mutter, sitting up to see a huge pile of presents at the bottom of my bed. I look across and see that Peter has an equally excited James jumping on him and Remus is standing by the door, looking highly amused at mine and Peter's abrupt waking up.

"Come on Wormtail," James grins. "Today's the only day of the year that I'm allowed chocolate before breakfast."

"Not that you ever stick to that rule," Remus muttered, dropping his pile of presents onto the floor so we can all open them together in mine and Peter's room.

"Rules are made to be broken," Sirius and James said at the exact same time. Remus and Peter both roll their eyes.

"Nothing's made to be broken," Peter told them.

"I'm sure there is," Sirius argues. "What about, erm-" He paused, thinking. "Piñatas?" He said triumphantly. "I'm sure there's more if you gave me more time."

"Food," I say promptly. "Technically, because you eat it, which is sort of breaking it." James roars with laughter at this and Sirius high fives me, grinning.

"Don't encourage them," Remus groans. "Let's open presents."

"Wrapping paper!" Sirius yells happily. "It's made to be ripped open by someone."

"Siriusly?" Peter said, rolling his eyes and Sirius groaned.

"That one, again?" He moaned. "That is so old."

 **A week later**

"What's that?" I spin and see Remus standing in the doorway, staring at me. I quickly pull my jumper over my head, panicking.

"I-er," I stammer. "It's nothing." I say quickly. He walks over to me, concern in his eyes.

"Severus, that wasn't nothing," He tells me. "How did you get those scars?"

"I don't know what your talking about," I say. No one can find out about my dad beating me. He'd only beat me worse in the summer if he found out. Then I step past him. "I need to check that I haven't left any of my stuff downstairs and finish packing." I say firmly, ending the conversation. With any luck he'll forget about it.

 **A few days later**

"Severus, we need to talk," Lily says, hugging me when I see her for the first time after the Christmas holidays.

"What's up?" I ask her, seeing that she looks really worried about something.

"Somewhere more private," She whispers, taking my hand and leading me outside towards the lake.

"Lily, it's freezing," I complain, shivering slightly. I only have a jumper on and there's snow falling around us.

"Remus told me," She says, looking me in the eye and my heart sinks slightly. Please tell me that he didn't tell her about the scars on my back. "Why didn't you tell me Severus? I thought we trusted each other."

"I do Lily," I tell her, taking her hand and squeezing. "You think it's easy for me?" I ask her. "If my dad knew that anyone knew about it, he'd only make it worse."

"Severus, you can't seriously want to see him again," Lily says. "You can't." I shrug.

"I have to," I tell her. "I have nowhere else to go in the summer. That's why I didn't want to go home at Christmas. Anything's better than going back there."

"Come home with me," Lily says. "If my parents knew why you couldn't go home, they wouldn't mind." I shake my head.

"And what happens if my dad sees me?" I ask her. "I don't have any alternative."

"You could have told me," She says, her eyes swelling with tears. "I hate seeing you like this Severus."

"You think this is easy for me to talk about?" I ask her, my voice getting slightly louder.

"No, but you can't just close up," Lily tells me. "That's what being together means Severus, it means if anything is bothering us, we tell the other. I'm here for you Severus and if that means I have to jump in front of you to protect you from your dad, then so be it." She'd really do that for me?

"I was scared," I whisper. "Of what he'd do." Lily smiles sadly and hugs me.

"Oh Sev," She whispers, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "I'm not going to let him go near you again."

"Promise?" I ask her. I feel like a little kid asking her to promise, but it's nice to have someone to talk to. Someone who cares for me.

"Always," She tells me. "You need to talk to someone though," She adds. "Slughorn, Mcgonagall, Dumbledore. They can do more about it than I can. They'd know more about it than I do and if you wanted they could probably get him locked up." But I shake my head.

"If that happened, he'd only beat my mum worse when he got out."

"He beats her too?" Lily asks and I nod.

"That's why she couldn't much to protect me. He'd just end up beating both of us."

"I'm so sorry Sev," Lily tells me. "It's gonna be okay though. I swear. We'll sort this out."


	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43**

 **A month later**

"You wanted to see me professor?" I say, when Dumbledore opens his office door for me to come in.

"Ah, yes, Severus," He says, gesturing to the chair that's in front of his desk. "Take a seat." I walk over to the seat and sit down. He gazes at me over his half moon glasses for a moment before taking the seat opposite me. "I thought I should inform you, you're father has been sentenced under muggle law to 3 years in prison." My mouth drops open. Dumbledore said that he'd be able to get him convicted, but I never really believed him. My dad never seemed to get what was coming for him. "But there's something I should warn you of."

"What?" I ask. I should've known that there would be a catch.

"I assume you've heard of Lord Voldemort," He says, and I nod, confused at what He Who Must Not Be Named has to do with this. "His followers have heard of the case, and I think it would be wise to make sure that you are prepared for it being in the Daily Prophet. They are using examples such as yours as propaganda for their cause."

"Why does that not surprise me?" I mutter and Dumbledore flashes me a sympathetic smile.

"Just be aware it is likely to happen," He tells me and I nod. "There is one more thing Severus," He adds. "Your mother was disowned when she married your father, her family are still refusing to take her back in, so next time you go home, I would advise being cautious about what you say to your mum. She's going to be very upset about all of this, and it's not been easy for her." I nod and he dismisses me. Lily is waiting outside his office for me. I smile when I see her and kiss her.

"3 years," I tell her, pulling away and she grins and hugs me.

"I told you it'd work out," She tells me, taking my hand as we begin to walk down to the library.

 **The next day**

"How could you possibly defend those muggles now?" Regina calls over to me from the Slytherin table when her owl delivers her the Daily Prophet at breakfast, waving the front page at me. I see it reads 'Disgusting animal beats child and wife". I turn away from Regina quickly and just ignore everyone for the rest of breakfast.

"I'm so sorry Severus," Lily whispers as we walk out of the Great Hall to go to Potions.

"It's not your fault," I tell her as she squeezes my hand. "Dumbledore warned me that it could happen." Stares and whisperings follow us the whole day. Some people, mainly ones that never really believed that I stopped supporting Voldemort, come up to me and say that their sorry about what my dad did to me. By break, I have got hold of a copy of the prophet so I know exactly what it says. It doesn't go into much detail about what he did to me and mum, but mainly just goes on about how he's a monster.

To my surprise there are some Slytherins that are sympathetic towards me. I guess I'm not the only one in Slytherin that doesn't support most people there's beliefs. They were probably just too scared before, after they'd seen what happened to me. How I'd been shunned and hated. If one good thing was to come out of my dad beating, it's this. People are less afraid of Voldemort now. This whole propaganda thing has backfired. At least here at Hogwarts anyway.

 **A month later**

"Hey Lily, do you want to go Hogwarts together on Saturday?" I ask at breakfast, taking a bite of bacon. She smiles sadly.

"I'd already agreed to go with Mary," She tells me. A part of me is slightly hurt by this. Hogsmeade is the only place that we can really go on dates while we're at Hogwarts. I guess she probably does want to spend time with other friends.

"No problem," I tell her, but James turns to me.

"Come with us if you want," He tells me. "We were gonna restock at Zonkos and then go to the Hog's Head."

"Why the Hog's Head?" I ask, wrinkling my nose in disgust. "The Three Broomsticks is so much nicer."

"Yes but ever since we've been allowed to go to Hogsmeade, we've always gone to the Hog's Head because they let us buy Firewhiskey there." Sirius tells me, grinning as he fills his plate with sausages.

"Fair enough," I reply. "Sure why not." I say, glad that I won't be missing out on a Hogsmeade trip because I have no one to go with.

 **A week later**

I'm about to walk into the Slytherin common room when I see Regina, Regulus and to my complete surprise Peter Pettigrew whispering down a dark corridor. They seem to be getting on well and talking urgently like they don't want to be caught. Something makes me suspicious. I've never seen Peter with the other two before and he claims he hates Voldemort like the rest of the Marauders. I silently cast a spell to make myself invisible and tiptoe over to them.

"And the Marauders don't suspect that you tell us stuff about who in the other houses don't want anything to do with the Dark Lord?" Regulus asks Peter who shakes their head.

"No," He tells them. "They all think they're so much smarter than me, but it's me that's outsmarted them." He adds and I have to stop myself from snorting with laughter. Peter's not smart. He only manages to get by with school work because he's friends with James and Sirius. Besides, I've outsmarted him now. The conversation is over now so the three of them leave, Regina and Regulus going to the Slytherin and Peter heading in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

I contemplate whether I should go up to the Gryffindor common room immediately and tell Lily what I have just overheard or not. I eventually decide not to. I'm not technically supposed to be there and it's nearly curfew. I can talk to her in the morning. It's not like he could know anything that could endanger anyone's life. He's not even in the resistance that's formed against Voldemort.


	44. Chapter 44

_**This is the last proper chapter. After this there will be one more update, but it will be a lot shorter and will just be an epilogue. Thank you to everyone who has read this, I have loved hearing all your feedback.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Chapter 44**

 **The next day**

"Lily there's something I need to tell you," I whisper to her at breakfast, careful to make sure that Peter isn't listening.

"What?" She asks but I shake my head and she realises not here. "I'm done eating if you are, Sev," She says. I nod and she takes my hand as we walk out of the Great Hall. "What's up?" She asks me when we're away from everyone. "Is it to do with your dad?" I shake my head.

"It's nothing to do with that," I tell her. "I was going to the common room last night when I saw Peter talking to Regina and Regulus."

"What?" Lily splutters. "But he hates those Death Eaters as much as I do." I shake my head.

"I heard them talking. I only heard the end of the conversation, but he's been lying. Clearly he had been hoping to be a spy for them."

"I don't understand," Lily tells me but I shake my head.

"We can't trust him Lily," I reply, shrugging. "We were naïve to think this wouldn't happen. Everyone's going to have to pick a side in this war Lily. One way or another. We will, it's inevitable. Peter's picked his."

"Why would anyone side with him though, He Who Must Not Be Named?" Lily asks me. I shrug.

"I nearly did once remember," I remind him. "The power is seductive. He knows just how to manipulate and control people. It's what he does."

"It's horrible," Lily whispers.

"I know," I reply, hugging her.

 **A month later**

"Sev!" I turn and see Lily running towards me. Her hair is whipping around her head and she's crying. Somehow she's a complete mess and really cute at the same time. "Sev," She says again, running into my arms. She weeps into my shoulder.

"Hey Lily," I say, holding her tight. A thousand questions go through my head. I have to know what's wrong. What could have upset Lily this much? "It's gonna be okay. What happened?" She pulls away and looks me in the eye, her eyes still glistening with tears. I could trace the line of salty silver running from her eyes.

"There was-" She breaks off into tears again. "There was a raid. A Death Eater one..." She trails off. "At home. Tuney was away so she was okay... but my parents-" She breaks off again, and I let her cry into my shoulder, realising what has happened. The Death Eaters must have targeted her family because she's muggle born, possibly caused by the fact that we worked out that Pettigrew was on the side of He Who Must Not Be Named.

"Oh Lily," I whisper, hugging her again. "I'm so sorry."

"Mcgonagall just told me," She whispers. "They found the bodies with a dark mark over the house. They haven't had chance to examine the bodies properly yet, but from what they know so far it looks like they were tortured." She tells me.

"It's okay," I whisper. I don't know what else I can do than hug her and tell her it's going to be okay. "At least Petunia wasn't there." She nods.

"She doesn't want to speak to me though," Lily tells me. "She says it's my fault."

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "It's not. You know that Lily. The only person to blame is You Know Who."

"That's not what it feels like," She tells me.

"Well it's true," I reply and she leans into my shoulder to cry once more. I can't do anything but wrap one arm around her, in an awkward embrace and the other hand is fondling her hair. It hurts me so much that she's so upset but I can't do a thing about it. I can't believe I almost began to follow You Know Who.

 **2 weeks later**

"It's only just beginning isn't it?" Lily asks me the day after her parents funeral and I nod. "All this is just going to get worse."

"I think so," I tell her. "But it'll work out. We'll have each other."

"Always," She whispers, taking my hand, interlinking all our fingers and squeezing it gently. "I can't lose you too."

"You won't," I tell her, leaning in to kiss her gently. "I promise."


	45. Chapter 45

_**I know this chapter is really short, but I hope you enjoy and thank you to everyone who has read this story. I can't believe I have so many followers/reviews so thank you.**_

 _ **~The Lonely Geek**_

 **Epilogue**

 **5 years later**

"What took you so long Sev?" Lily asks me as I arrive back at the table in the restaurant that I booked for this evening. I've just spent the last 10 minutes in the toilets working up the courage to do it. The past few years haven't been easy for us, with Lily's parents dying. We've both joined the resistance against He Who Must Not Be Named and he's as strong as ever. I'd never rather have anyone fight by my side though. I take a deep breath, my heart pounding slightly. I take the box out of my pocket and get down on one knee, opening it. Lily gasps before I even speak and nods. "Yes."

"Hang on, I haven't even asked yet," I smile.

"I don't care," She says, putting her hand out to help me back up, but instead I take the ring out of the box and slide it onto her finger. "I just want to be with you."

"I will be," I tell her, standing up. "Always." And fireworks explode around my head as we lean in for a kiss.


End file.
